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PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 



PRACTICALLY APPLIED 



/ BY 
J. M. GREENWOOD, A. M. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, KANSAS CITY, MO. 





NEW YORK 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1887 



LBKUX 



CoPYBIGHT, 18S7, 

By d. appleton and company. 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The motive that induced the author to submit this 
little volume for publication is to help the teachers of 
this country to do letter and more intelligent work in 
the school-room. 

It assumes that education is a science ; that school- 
teachers can understand the principles of this science ; 
and that in their daily work they can apply these prin- 
ciples with unerring certainty to the children under 
their control. 

In the presentation of topics the teacher is told in 
plain language what to do as well as what to avoid. 
The directions are therefore simple, pointed, and em- 
phatic. 

The object of the work throughout is to impress 
this important question upon the mind of the teacher : 
" How shall I teach so as to have my pupils become self- 
reliant^ independent, manly men and womanly wom- 
en?" 

J. M. Greenwood. 
Kansas Citt, Ma 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. — The Application op the Principles op Psychology to 

the Work op Teaching 1 

II. — School Management 20 

III. — Principles op Class Management 37 

IV. — Methods op Conducting Recitations — Directions to Pu- 
pils — Directions to Teachers .... 49 

V. — Length op Recitation 61 

VI. — Art op Questioning . 71 

VII.— Teaching Reading . . 82 

VIII.— Teaching Composition and Language . . . .98 

IX. — Teaching Penmanship 114 

X. — Teaching Geography 128 

XL— Teaching History . . 140 

XII. — Teaching Arithmetic .153 

XIII.— Health and Hygiene . . . ... . .165 

XIV.— Only a Boy . • • " W8 



PKI^CIPLES OF EDUCATION 
PEAOTIOALLT APPLIED. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE APPLICATION OF THE PELNCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY 
TO THE WOEK OF TEACHING-. 

This subject will be treated under three divisions : 
I. Temperaments. 
II. Educational Psychology. 

III. Educatimial Principles and their Application. 

It is assumed that the teacher must learn what to do, 
how to do, when to do, and when to leave off. Owing 
to the nature of his work, he deals chiefly with mind 
and its manifestations as made known through the 
body, and hence he is supposed to be familiar with the 
elements of psychology, and not unacquainted with the 
theory and art of teaching. Thus qualified, his success 
as a teacher hinges entirely upon the right application 
of the educational forces he uses in imparting instruc- 
tion and in arousing self-activity in the minds of the 
learners. This gives a double phase to education — in- 
struction and culture. The foregoing implies upon the 
part of the teacher a working knowledge of the human 
mind in general, its laws of growth, modes of action, 



2 PKINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PEACTICALLY APPLIED. 

and methods of culture ; also, an intimate acquaintance 
with the physiologic, hygienic, and mental conditions of 
those to be taught, and the nature, influence, and limits 
of the means employed in conveying knowledge and 
awakening thought. The teacher, it is admitted, may 
be well read in psychology as an abstract science, and 
capable of talking intelligently upon any special depart- 
ment thereof, and yet fail in teaching, because of ina- 
bility to adjust and to adapt his educational psychology 
to the capacity of his pupils. Owing to this fact, many 
intelligent and conscientious teachers, having worked 
earnestly and industriously, are puzzled in trying to 
understand why their efforts are so unproductive of 
substantial results. Perhaps some light may be thrown 
on this mystery. 

As a class, teachers do not study child-mind under- 
standing^. They begin the subject at the wrong end. 
What psychology the most of them know has been 
learned from books, and to nearly all of them it is a 
nebulous mass at best. Much of it, when put into the 
plainest language, needs to be translated or diluted be- 
fore they know what it means. Eight heartily do they 
" wish that writers on psychology would mix more or- 
ganized common-sense with their metaphysics, and con- 
vey their ideas in simple words that common people 
can understand." Doubtless this is the reason why so 
many teachers have associated an intangible something 
— difficult to grasp and harder to retain — with the 
words " mental philosophy, psychology, and metaphys- 
ics." Turning away in disgust from a subject that 
yields so little, they fall back on experience and observa- 
tion, and thus virtually deny that the scattered facts in 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. 3 

methods of culture are susceptible of classification, and 
that any general principles may be deduced therefrom. 
From such premises, indeed, it is not strange that they 
fail to discover any relation between psychological prin- 
ciples and their application to living children ; and, 
moreover, they are apt to look with distrust upon any 
statement affirming that such a relationship exists, and 
that it can be discovered and applied in teaching. Being 
unable to harmonize bookish psychology with the facts 
before them, they depart on divergent lines of thought 
and action in their school- work. Against nature, their 
pupils are mentally and physically forced so far as the 
educational machinery can crush and form them into 
the same molds. Instead of intelligent work, it is edu- 
cational mechanism. Both teachers and school-officers 
need awakening on this subject. Child-mind must be 
studied in the children themselves. The child is the 
starting-point. Here the teacher must begin as an in- 
telligent, patient observer, and watch carefully the un- 
folding of every faculty, its laws of growth and meth- 
ods of culture. Books and lectures are helps not to be 
disparaged, yet they are not the only sources of knowl- 
edge. For instance, the boy who studies geology only 
from books may pick up some general notions in regard 
to that science, but put him out among the rocks and 
he is lost, helpless, and confused ; and so it is in study- 
ing mind, divorced from living people. Naked mind 
we are not familiar with, and do not know how to 
treat it. 

Let us attend, however, to a more practical phase of 
this subject, and one, too, that is neglected in nearly all 
the training-schools of this country, and yet it is, in my 



4c PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

opinion, one of the most essential qualifications that the 
teacher can possess, namely, a critical knowledge of 

I. The Human Temperaments. 

The brain is the organ, or instrument, that the mind 
uses in acquiring or in imparting knowledge ; in other 
words, it is the organ of the mind, and the mind is 
manifested through the brain. Now, the human mind 
is so constituted that it groups objects that are alike 
together, and separates those that are unlike. This is 
the natural method, and it lies at the foundation of all 
logical classification, as well as all progress in the vari- 
ous fields of human thought. A law that is so universal 
in its nature and so comprehensive in its details, and is 
alike applicable to individuals, species, genera, classes, 
and kingdoms, should not be neglected in the grand 
work of human culture. To give a more practical di- 
rection to these suggestions, let us consider briefly the 
object of our solicitude, the child, composed, according 
to the teachings of physiology, of three systems, con- 
sisting of ten apparatuses, forming thirty-nine different 
organs. This is the child as a material organism. This 
organism can exist only by complying with certain well- 
known conditions, and these are conditions of growth, 
which are proper food, clothing and shelter, exercise, 
rest, and sleep. For purposes of classification according 
to their functions, the three systems are the blood-pro- 
ducing, blood-circulating, and the nervous system. 

At a glance, an experienced physiologist can tell 
which of these systems predominates in any particular 
person that may come before him or be accurately de- 
scribed to him ; or he can balance with nice discrimina- 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. 5 

tion the relations that these systems bear to one another. 
Such knowledge is acquired by observation, experience, 
and reflection. In the art of healing, this knowledge 
is an essential element. Experienced stockmen will 
select from a large* drove of cattle or horses those ani- 
mals having peculiar qualities and dispositions. Those 
judges of animal nature seldom or never make mistakes. 
Vast differences exist in the fiber and structure of the 
various kinds of wood that lumber-men well under- 
stand. They know what strain or pressure each kind 
will sustain, and what weight it will support. Should 
the teacher's knowledge of those committed to his care 
be any the less accurate ? Should it not be more so ? 
True ; but how can this precise knowledge be acquired ? 
Answer : By the teachers' studying the temperaments of 
living people closely, carefully, and intelligently, until 
they can tell instantly the prevailing temperament or 
combination of temperaments of any child. Tempera- 
ment determines the prevailing bias of disposition, 
whether natural or acquired, and upon it depends the 
sum total of our inclinations and prevailing tendencies. 
The temperaments are formed by the proportion of 
those elements that enter into the bodily structure, caus- 
ing the diversities in shape, form, and mental character- 
istics that we observe; and whether we employ the 
words "lymphatic, sanguine, bilious, and nervous," or 
" vital, motive, and mental," to denote the bodily con- 
stitution of individuals, these terms correspond to those 
real distinctions which prompt the possessor to move or 
act in a certain direction. The mind is a unit ; it mani- 
fests its activity in various directions. A distinct kind 
of mind activity is called a faculty of the mind ; conse- 
2 



6 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

quently, there are as many faculties of the mind as it 
has distinct kinds of activity. In like manner, the body 
is one organism, constructed npon temperamental con- 
ditions. The manner of their combination produces 
tendencies either to mental activity or to sluggishness, 
causing all those variations in human nature that we 
observe. When the intellect, sensibility, or will pre- 
vails, there is found a corresponding temperamental de- 
velopment which exerts a controlling influence, and 
shapes and colors the whole character of the possessor. 
He lives and acts in harmony with his nature. Teach- 
ers furnished with eyes, ears, good sense, and an inclina- 
tion to study, can tell what tendencies prevail in the 
pupils they are called upon to teach. This is justly re- 
garded as the key to eminent success. 

The child in whom the nervous temperament pre- 
dominates certainly requires different incentives, both 
in instruction and management, from the one whose 
strongest temperament is the bilious or sanguine, or a 
combination of them. It is not claimed that studying 
the temperaments is the same as studying mind; but 
the channels along which the mind's activity and inten- 
sity manifest themselves are legitimate subjects of in- 
vestigation. Furthermore, the teacher who first pre- 
pares himself by a thorough working knowledge of the 
temperamental conditions of childhood is better equipped 
for discerning character and the various modes of treat- 
ment applicable to it than the one ignorant of these 
truths. Of all persons, the teacher should be the 
most deeply versed in the philosophy of the human 
mind. He should be familiar with mind in its higher 
as well as in its simpler forms. Mind in childhood, in 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. f 

its most elementary forms, lie should know. A word 
or a smile to one child may be more repellant or at- 
tractive than a whipping or a valuable gift to another. 
A teacher who is a correct judge of human nature 
knows how to adapt instruction to the capacity of learn- 
ers. From the very first day that the child of a highly- 
wrought nervous organization enters school, the intelli- 
gent teacher feels a deep solicitude for him, and advises 
much out-door recreation and frequent rests from study, 
early bedtime and refreshing sleep. The sturdy boy, 
having a compact organization, capacious lung power, 
and good digestion, needs to work off his superabundant 
energy in various directions. The school-house may be 
either a prison or a palace to him, depending upon how 
he is put into it and kept there. And just here we are 
brought face to face with one of the most serious ques- 
tions connected with American civilization, namely, 
whether we are not developing too highly, in the school 
children of this country, the nervous system, and dwarf- 
ing the growth of the blood-producing and the blood- 
circulating systems. Information collected from nu- 
merous sources points in that direction, particularly in 
our cities and towns. As it is beyond the limits of the 
present discussion to pursue this phase of the subject 
further, reference to it in this connection serves the 
purpose of indicating the vast issues involved in the 
subject of education, and as influencing the physical 
characteristics of our people. This is a serious question 
that educators must meet. 

ISTot only should the teacher be able to tell at sight 
what temperament predominates in any particular child, 
but also what temperament prevails in his own organiza- 



8 PKINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PEACTICALLY APPLIED. 

tion, and its combining ratios with the other tempera- 
ments. Knowing himself, he can institute a series of 
comparisons between himself and others, and possibly 
this may be the means of correcting some of his own 
faults. It is a well-established fact that the tempera- 
mental condition of a person may be somewhat modified 
in a series of years. The teacher, by vigilant effort, is 
able in time to tame the young barbarian into an intelli- 
gent, refined, and cul tured gentleman. Nervous chil- 
dren, if placed under a calm, quiet, self-possessed teacher, 
one that does not fret and worry and fidget, will become 
steady ; he will teach them to avoid many excitants that 
would otherwise strain their nerves to the highest pitch* 
The teacher who can not adapt himself to his pupils^ 
and who fails to acquire a firm grasp on their affections 
by holding in check the vicious tendencies and unfold- 
ing the better ones, will not succeed in making them 
useful and honorable members of society. 

II. Educational Psychology. 

Education is not a matter of chance. It is an order- 
ly development of man's powers, that furnishes his mind 
with knowledge, and gives him skill to use it. All 
growth proceeds in accordance with some regular plan 
of development. This plan is the law. Ail plants and 
animals grow according to laws governing their lives. 
They grow under certain conditions, and, if these condi- 
tions are not supplied, death ensues. Law is written 
everywhere and in the plainest characters. Proper soil, 
heat, moisture, and light, the plant must have, or it 
withers and dies. The wild bird, imprisoned in the 
cage, frets and struggles and dies— dies trying to free 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. 9 

itself. Plant-life symbolizes human growth and cult- 
ure ; jet the educational lif e of the child as far tran- 
scends that of the mere plant as human intelligence rises 
in grandeur above the life-principle imbedded in the 
kernel of grain. Education as a science is based upon 
fundamental principles, which express the laws of hu- 
man life and its development. The highest interpreta- 
tion that we can give to this conception is the perfection 
of the individual for the duties of life. 

The child is the central figure in all educational 
systems. His powers are multiplex, and his possibilities 
infinite ; the former may be unfolded in their natural 
order by the skillful teacher, while he can only direct 
the latter by inspiring to lofty endeavor. Thus the 
teacher is the molder, builder, and architect of his own 
school. As his conception of education grows and ex- 
pands daily, so will his workmanship become more per- 
fect and symmetrical. Such high trusts demand con- 
summate skill, rare tact, cultivated taste, and unerring 
judgment. Earnest, diligent, enthusiastic, and soul- 
inspiring, the true teacher is always a learner. All 
possibilities of the race he recognizes as latent in the 
child. When the child is charged, can the teacher draw 
out the sparks % This human machine may contain a 
concentration of pointed and startling traits of character 
transmitted for a dozen generations. Herein lies another 
difficult question, and one which embarrasses thousands 
of teachers. No account is taken of hereditary tenden- 
cies. Presuming that the ponderous school-mill will 
grind out about the same quantity and quality, of flour 
however great the variety may be in the grain furnished, 
teachers are too frequently forgetful that blind forces, 



10 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

working upon sensitive minds, may blight and mildew 
the fairest hopes and the brightest prospects — may cause 
the most active minds to stagnate. Teachers at the be- 
ginning of school should acquaint themselves with all 
the essential factors and tendencies of each pupil. Such 
information simplifies school management, and effectu- 
ally disposes of " that very peculiar boy " who rules the 
household and is so annoying to his teacher. In pos- 
session of such facts, the teacher would enter upon his 
work intelligently. There may be twenty different 
factors in a pupil's nature that the teacher ought to 
know, but, being ignorant of them, a system of guess- 
work is adopted, with the usual well-known results ! 

It is no unusual thing in " school-keeping," as it is 
called, to find the " keeper " ignorant of the nature, 
habits, associations, and dispositions of the pupils attend- 
ing his school. Every child is a problem to be studied , 
interpreted, and understood aright. A mere lad is not 
qualified to preside as judge in our civil or criminal courts 
to mete out justice to the people. The judge is a man 
learned, or supposed to be learned, in the law. The 
minister, whose calling is a high and sacred one, must 
keep abreast of those vital issues which bear directly upon 
man's present and future happiness. How much more 
important, then, is it that the teacher should have that 
professional knowledge that study and experience only 
can give ! The teacher, owing to the relation that he sus- 
tains to his pupils, is judge, physician, minister, and teach- 
er, all centered in one individual. These sacred trusts are 
committed to his keeping. Should he cease to improve 
or to grow in knowledge and wisdom, they will perish 
in his hands. To stand still is death ; only growth is life. 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. H 

III. Educational Principles. 

1. To grow is a law of our being. 

2. The mind is self-active. 

3. Body and mind are interdependent, and must be 
studied together. 

4. The teacher must know the nature of childhood 
and the laws of human development. 

5. The teacher should understand the order in which 
the faculties of the human mind are unfolded. 

6. This knowledge can be acquired by studying body 
and mind and their phenomena. 

7. Education is a growth, and is effected by thought 
and the expression of thought. 

8. In teaching, the matter and the method must be 
adapted to the capacity of the learner. 

9. The teacher must know the subject-matter to be 
taught, and its relations to other subjects. 

10. Attention on the part of the learner is the con- 
dition of acquiring knowledge. 

11. In teaching, the learner must pass by easy steps 
from the known to the unknown. 

12. The concrete phase of a subject should precede 
the abstract, and the objective should precede the sub- 
jective. 

13. Only one thing should be taught at a time, and 
the learner's understanding should be thoroughly reached. 

14. All intellectual progress depends upon the learn- 
er's ability to discern agreements and differences. 

15. The teacher stimulates and directs the learner, 
but all education comes from the learner's voluntary 
effort. 



12 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

18. " The highest perfection of the individual is the 
true object of education." 

The foregoing principles are based npon the science 
of human development. Some of them refer to the 
learner, others to the teacher, and others again to learner 
and teacher. Those referring to methods may be 
employed in teaching any of the common or higher 
branches, and at any stage of the learner's progress. 
Ko restrictions are imposed on any of them save the 
limits of the teacher's ingenuity to devise illustrations. 
Educational principles are guide-posts that say : " This 
way, sir ! " When the teacher departs from them he 
travels over rough and thorny roads, and is kept re- 
tracing his steps, hardly making any progress. When 
the blind lead the blind, there is no one to watch for 
the ditch, and, when they tumble into it, there is no 
hand near to help them out. The word " struggling " 
well represents most of the work in our schools. Strug- 
gling teachers, struggling children — all stragglers! 
How we long to lift them out and set them traveling 
on smooth roads and face foremost ! Struggling with 
words, rules, tables, and definitions, appears to be the 
end and glory for which school children live and surfer. 

Some illustrations will now be adduced from meth- 
ods of teaching arithmetic. The following are se- 
lected from an arithmetic just published, and will serve 
the purpose of illustrating one phase of this subject. 
The pupil is directed to copy and complete the follow- 
ing and other exercises : 

4 + 2=?, 5 + 2=?, 5-2=?, 
7 + 3= ?, 2 + 5= ?, 3-2= % 
6-2= ?, 3 + 8= % etc. 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. 13 

such exercises possess some genu- 
ine merit, yet they make a very thin mental diet. Let 
ns take the equation 4 + 2 = % and examine it. Put- 
ting four and two together is one act of the mind — a 
synthesis — and so of the other expressions of like form. 
Again 5 «— 2 = % involves an additional element — an- 
alysis—and is one step in advance. When once the child 
has learned that four and two are six, a thousand repe- 
titions will give him no new information, and it is a 
waste of time to keep him employed in that manner. 
Suppose, however, that we put this equation under an- 
other form and less restricted, the figure " 6 " may then 
assume a new meaning. Suppose we request the class 
to find all the numbers by adding two at a time that 
will make "6" At once they are set thinking, and 
each one must think for himself. The number " 6 " is 
broken to pieces, the parts examined, and put together 
again. Genuine sparks of thought fly about the num- 
ber " 6 " as the little hands are raised in token of 
results. Here are the results in full, using integers 
only: 

Operation.— 4 + 2 = 6, 3 + 3 = 6, 5 + 1 = 6, 
6 + = 6. The child sees " 6 " under all these forms. 
Having drilled on a few numbers, the work may be ex- 
tended by adding three numbers at a time to make " 6." 

Operation.— 4 + 1 + 1 = 6, 3 + 2 + 1 = 6, 2 + 
2 + 2 = 6, 5 + 1 + = 6, 6 + + = 6. 

Such exercises may be indefinitely extended, fol- 
lowed immediately by taking numbers together and 
apart. Given 4 + % — ? = 6. Here the missing num- 
bers are to be supplied, or as many of them as time will 
permit. 



14: PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Operation. — 4 -f- 3 — 1 = 6. 

4 + 4 - 2 = 6. 

4+5-3 = 6. 

4 + 6-4 = 6. 
etc. 
By a slight change we have ? + ? — ? + 2 = 6, and 
again the learner may start in pursuit of results. It is 
now evident that these and similar exercises may be ex- 
tended till the signs of multiplication and division are 
employed, and fractional numbers are used with the 
same facility as integers. Such exercises require clear, 
concise, intelligent thought-work, and stand in striking 
contrast to dull mechanical drudgery: that only stag- 
nates and does not educate. 

Again, a class is to learn the " Table of Long Meas- 
ure." How shall they learn it ? Committing the 
" table " to memory by repeating it over and over till 
all " can say it," is the universal method. This method 
is an outrage, an insult, an irreparable injury to the chil- 
dren. It violates every educational principle, except 
one prevalent in China. To verify a table is the ra- 
tional manner of learning it. Each pupil should be pro- 
vided with a foot-ruler, and set to work measuring such 
objects in the school-room as the teacher may designate. 
The arbitrary length, the inch, is marked off, and from 
it the learner gets his first definite conception of meas- 
ured distance. Counting the inches in a foot, the unit of 
measure is fixed in his mind. In measuring, care must 
be taken that it is done correctly. By short steps the 
learner goes from the foot to the yard, from the yard 
to the rod, and, by reversing the steps, back again to 
inches. Having measured different objects in the school- 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. 15 

room, a wider field of objects may be selected about the 
school-grounds. Pertinent questions by- the teacher, ad- 
dressed to the pupils as the work progresses, will fix 
the facts firmly in each mind. In every act of measure- 
ment the pupil uses analysis and synthesis — reduction 
ascending and reduction descending. Mentally, he 
passes rapidly up and down the scale. The foot-ruler is 
to be followed by using the yard-stick and tape-line in 
measuring objects of considerable length. Such practi- 
cal work cultivates the eye, hand, observation, attention, 
judgment, and reason, and the pupil retains what he 
learns. 

As another exercise, " Wine Measure " may be pre- 
sented. The school should be furnished with a gill, a 
pint, a quart, and a gallon measure ; also with a bucket 
of water, or a bushel or two of sand. Everything 
in readiness, a member of the class will dip up a gill 
of whatever is to be measured and empty it into the 
pint cup, and repeat till this vessel is filled, and it in 
turn emptied into the quart cup, the class noting par- 
ticularly the number of gills in a pint, and also in a 
quart. Now the gill, pint, or quart measure may be 
used to fill the gallon vessel or to empty it. The chil- 
dren, keeping account of the gills, pints, and quarts in 
a gallon, understand every step in the process, and know 
the why and wherefore. The table means something, 
and they can explain the meaning. Doing is the way 
to knowing, and this is the fact emphasized. What is 
true of these two " tables " is correspondingly true of 
other tables of weights and measures. Thousands of 
children can repeat glibly " Avoirdupois Weight," yet 
they can not weigh a pound of butter on the scales. 



16 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Shall we not bridge this great chasm between school 
work and the practical duties of life % 

The world's great teachers are most valuable to us, 
not on account of the discoveries they have made, but 
on account of the power they have given us to get 
knowledge for ourselves, and the mental activity they 
inspire. Hence one of the great objects in teaching 
is to put the learner in such a position that he must 
get knowledge for himself, and follow his own incli- 
nation doing so ; yet his efforts should be directed by 
the teacher. To keep abreast of his work, the teacher 
is required to analyze his subjects and frequently to re- 
construct them, and to devote his attention to the learn- 
er's mind. Thoroughly conversant with his subjects 
and well grounded in the principles of human nature, 
he is properly qualified to impart instruction and to 
manage children successfully. He is able also to trace 
the proper connection of what he teaches and how he 
teaches with the fundamental operations of the hu- 
man mind as related to the body and acting through 
the nerves, muscles, and special senses. Intellectual 
acts he distinguishes as belonging to two classes — the 
perception of agreements and the perception of differ- 
ences, supplemented by memory, or the power to hold 
in the mind what has once been perceived. The power 
of observing differences is, perhaps, more important in 
an educational sense than that of noting agreements, 
although they are the complements of each other. Dif- 
ferences strike us everywhere. By differences persons 
and things are separated and regarded as distinct. Com- 
plete knowledge unites in thought what an object is, by 
separating it from what it is not. Agreements form 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN TEACHING. 17 

classes, and individual objects picked out of classes 
make differences. The unskillful teacher relies almost 
entirely upon teaching agreements and neglecting dif- 
ferences. Such instruction is one-sided, narrow, and 
superficial. 

Certain operations of the mind take place in the 
acquisition of knowledge. The several steps in the 
process are so clearly established that all thinking per- 
sons accept them. Analyzing a mental operation by 
which an object of thought is reached and fixed in the 
mind, the steps appear as follow : 

1. Attention; 2. Abstraction; 3. Analysis; 4. Syn- 
thesis; 5. Comparison; 6. Identification; 7. Discrimi- 
nation; 8. Classification. 

To obtain these results, it is the teacher's duty to 
stick closely to the point under consideration. Instead 
of spading around in the neighborhood of any particular 
topic, he digs it up root and branch, and holds it before 
the minds of his class till they grasp it with a power 
that never relaxes. By appropriation and assimilation 
it becomes their own. 

Another important distinction, but most unfortu- 
nately lost sight of in teaching, is in not distinguishing 
sharply between thought and the expression of thought. 
Thought naturally precedes expression. Thought ap- 
pears to spring up instantly in the mind, while the ex- 
pression is of slower growth. Ideas go before words. 
Words symbolize ideas, that others may grasp the 
thought they are intended to express. Therefore, edu- 
cation is composed of two complementary parts — thought 
and the expression of thought. It is important in all 
cases for the teacher to know whether any difficulty 



18 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

that a pupil may have in learning is owing to an error 
in thought or to a defect in expression. If an error 
exist in thought, it can not be corrected by correcting 
the language. The source of error is deeper than any 
verbal distinction, hence the necessity for deciding cor- 
rectly to which the error belongs. A learner may use 
language well, apparently, yet be incapable of thinking 
either correctly or vigorously. No amount of language 
drill will ca«use him to improve his forms of thought, 
and neither will thought-work always improve or culti- 
vate the power of expressing ideas clearly, forcibly, and 
elegantly. Dimness of thought, or failure to grasp an 
idea firmly and to hold it tenaciously, may be the weak 
point in the pupil's mind. To remove dimness of 
thought, repeated explanations and demonstrations are 
necessary. Defects in expression are remedied by con- 
stant and careful practice in the choice of language, 
which should be a prominent feature of every recitation. 
The uppermost question in actual school work is the 
form of thought and how to express it. The ability to 
do stalwart thinking is one of the lost arts in most 
schools. The general drift is setting strongly to memo- 
rizing. Memorizing rules, definitions, " beautiful senti- 
ments," and a vast amount of gilt-edged rubbish and 
padding, that have no educational significance, except 
as clogs to thought and leaden feet to progress. Awk- 
wardly the boy may express his ideas, and with diffi- 
culty make himself understood ; yet this awkward boy 
may think well, and in time acquire an easy, natu- 
ral, and graceful style of expression. Rob him of his 
thoughts, and his language betrays his ignorance. Edu- 
cation rests upon the thought-basis as its pivotal center. 



PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY EST TEACHING. 19 

Thought has life, activity, growth in it. Memory is the 
form of education minus the soul. It is the receiving 
vault in which thought is imprisoned, and then starved 
to death. 



CHAPTER II. 

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 

In discussing school management we aim to ascer- 
tain the best methods of conducting all the affairs of a 
school. The particular points to be considered are, 
first, the school-house; secondly, the organization of 
classes ; thirdly, the movements of classes ; and fourth- 
ly, the daily programme of exercises. 

The construction of a school-building may aid the 
teacher very materially in the management of the school, 
or it may be so inconvenient and so poorly adapted to 
school purposes as to subvert many things that should 
be accomplished in school work. 

In this discussion my remarks are intended to apply 
to country schools as well as to city and town graded 
schools. Nearly seven tenths of all the children in the 
nation must be educated in the country schools. These 
schools are the people's colleges. The remaining three 
tenths are educated in private and graded schools. 
Most of the States have systems of schools, and, though 
not alike in all respects, the following general classifi- 
cation will apply to most of them. 

Under a State system of schools there are, first, the 
ungraded and graded elementary schools ; secondly — a 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 21 

step higher — the high schools, academies, and semina- 
ries; and thirdly — still another step higher — the nor- 
mal schools for the training of teachers. Besides these, 
there are, in many of the States, universities for a still 
more advanced course of study, and many private 
schools and colleges. This simple classification will 
show what is meant by a State system, though the or- 
ganization in many of the States is as yet very imper- 
fect. 

School-houses and their location. In some of the 
country districts the school-house is to "be found in one 
of the most inaccessible places in the district. It is a 
matter of considerable importance where the school- 
house in a district is located. It should be central, so 
that children from all parts of the district can easily get 
to it, The grounds about it should be desirable and 
inviting as well as convenient, and should be selected 
with a view to the interests of the children rather than 
to those of some one who wishes to give an acre of land 
which he can not cultivate, and which the district ac- 
cepts without due consideration. Sometimes the ground 
is selected in a ravine, or perhaps on a hill, or some 
other place difficult of access, forcing the children to 
walk across fields instead of along the traveled roads in 
order to reach it. 

The school-house should be properly constructed in 
the arrangement of the halls, rooms, and stairways / 
of the heating, ventilation, lighting, and seating. Some 
school-rooms are not in good shape for auditory pur- 
poses. Every school-house should be so well heated that 
it is comfortable in every part ; it should be commodious, 
so that every person in it shall have enough breathing 



22 PRINCIPLES OP EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

and working space ; it should be well lighted, so that 
the constant use of the eyes need not result in injury to 
these most useful and sensitive of organs ; it should be 
well ventilated, so that the workers within it shall be sup- 
plied with pure air, and yet not in such a manner as to 
expose any one to the death-dealing draughts ; it should 
be supplied with comfortable seats and desks adapted to 
the sizes of the pupils who occupy them ; and it should 
be well supplied with such other things as facilitate the 
work of instruction, There should be a clock in every 
room. Time is an important element in the manage- 
ment of a school. "Work must be begun on time, con- 
tinued full time, finished on time. The habit of being 
on time in the performance of every duty should be 
formed early in the life of every child, and a clock ever 
before him, telling the time, is needed among the first 
items of furniture in a school-room. A teacher who 
fails to be on time can not succeed any more than can a 
business man who is always behind time. The railroad 
train never waits for the laggard. 

How was a school ever successful without a black- 
board? is a question that we ask nowadays. I can 
recollect a place in Illinois where a heated discussion 
arose in regard to the introduction of a blackboard into 
a church. This was at an early day, and nobody in that 
part of the country had ever seen a blackboard. A man 
came out from the State of JSTew York and taught arith- 
metic and a little English grammar, and he wanted a 
blackboard. He was conducting his school in a Baptist 
church, and the elders opposed the use of anything 
black, as they thought it might be begotten of the devil, 
and have a bad influence on their spiritual welfare. But 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 23 

he finally persuaded them to allow it, and when Sun- 
day came there was the blackboard, not larger than 
our penmanship charts, and they turned the black part 
to the wall in one corner of the church. Ideas, new 
ideas, spread with wonderful rapidity, and now a school- 
house without a blackboard would seem like a wagon 
without wheels. A blackboard ought to extend entirely 
around the four sides of the room. It must be made 
low, so that the little children can use it, and high 
enough for the larger children. And there are maps 
and charts — the tools without which a teacher can not 
do all the work of the school properly. 

The water furnished for school children should be 
pure and fresh ; and, if taken from a well or cistern, 
should be drawn and exposed to the air in pails. No 
well or cistern should be covered to exclude the air, for 
air helps to keep the water pure and healthful. Recent 
experiments show that more people die of typhoid fever 
caused by drinking impure water than from any other 
one cause. Not long since one of the ablest mathema- 
ticians in this country died at the early age of thirty- 
seven, and his death was attributed to dri n king impure 
cistern-water. School children must be supplied with 
pure water to drink. "We have no right to be careless 
about this. There must be no poison in their drink, in 
the food they eat, nor in the air they breathe. 

Play-Grounds. 

A play-ground is almost as necessary to a school- 
house as the latter is to a district. It should be large, 
well fenced in, and there should be trees and flowers 
and pleasant walks to add to its attractions. The love 



24 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

of the beautiful ought always to be cherished in the 
hearts of the children, for this love has a strong and 
permanent influence in molding character, and in pre- 
paring them for useful, happy lives. And, when the 
walks and grounds are made beautiful, the children 
should be encouraged to use them, to care for them. 
And, too, the decoration of the school-rooms themselves 
by the children should be encouraged. Let them bring 
flowers and pictures, if they will ; and, be the offering 
ever so simple, express yourself pleased, thus giving 
great joy to the heart of the little child. 

Myopia. 

Before taking up the second division of our subject 
we will refer again to the proper lighting of school- 
rooms, in order to call attention to the care of the eyes. 
In this country and in Europe much complaint has been 
made of the myojpia, or near-sightedness, of so many 
pupils in the schools. More than sixty per cent of the 
students who go through the German schools leave 
there near-sighted. There must be a reason for this, 
and many physicians who have investigated the subject 
agree in thinking that much of it might be avoided 
by an observance of the following points : The light 
should not be allowed to come directly in the face of 
the child, but from the left side. Care should be ex- 
ercised in regard to the amount of light. If there is 
not enough light in a room, there results an unnatural 
and injurious expansion of the pupil of the eye if an 
effort is made to use the eyes. 

Again, teachers should see to it that children do not 
sit with their bodies bent forward and downward, nor 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 25 

with the eyes too close to their books, nor hold their 
books so that the rays of light strike their books at too 
obtuse angles. 

Teachers have better opportunities for preventing 
or discovering optical defects in pupils than parents, 
and should at once notify the latter when there are in- 
dications of an abnormal or of a diseased condition of 
the eyes. 

Classification and Promotion. 

The most difficult problem, especially for young 
teachers going into country schools, is that of the organ- 
ization of classes. The statements of the children can 
not be relied upon to give full data for classification, 
nor can reports left by a former teacher always be trust- 
ed, as they give so little information on this subject. 
Frequently boys go to school one winter, and get nearly 
through the arithmetic, say from fractions to square- 
root, during a three months' term of school. The next 
year comes a new teacher. Some of these boys do not 
return, and some new ones come in. Those who return 
usually have to begin just where they did the year be- 
fore, and pursue the same old track. This goes on 
sometimes for six or seven years, and the pupils never 
get any farther in their studies than they did in the first 
winter. 

Every teacher who is employed in a country school 
should leave a record in which are the names of all the 
pupils, with a distinct statement of the advancement of 
each, so that a new teacher need have no difficulty in 
organizing the school without loss of time. 

There should be a definite basis of classification, and 



26 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

this the teacher should know and follow. If one teacher 
grades on spelling, and his successor on penmanship, 
and a third on something else — each on his own hobby 
— no good results can be secured in a school. 

It is generally conceded by educators that all classi- 
fication in schools should be based upon reading and 
arithmetic, the former in the lower grades, and the lat- 
ter in all the more advanced classes. 

If there be a large pupil, whose mental powers seem 
tolerably well developed, and he can apply himself more 
closely than others, he should be placed in more ad- 
vanced classes, even though he can not read very well. 
By this means he will be able to derive all the benefit 
possible in the short time he remains in school. 

Some time since I prepared the following Course of 
Study and Daily Programme for country schools, mak- 
ing it extend over a period of eight school years, allow- 
ing six months to the year. Many pupils will complete 
it in less time. The school is arranged in two depart- 
ments, primary and grammar, four years' time given 
to each department, and each year being divided into 
two terms of three months each. The year and grade 
are made to correspond. The fractions indicate what 
part of a subject is completed during a term. The star 
indicates that the instruction is entirely oral, and that 
the pupil does not have a text-book. In language and 
primary geography the oral instruction is supplemented 
by the book. The object of this course of study is to 
systematize the work in country schools, to aid teachers 
in the work of classification, and to secure better results 
than can be done under the loose plan, with nothing 
definite in view. 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 



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28 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Many persons have an idea that the graded-school 
system is a kind of Procrustean bed upon which pupils 
are fitted without regard to their interests. 

The mechanically graded school and the heteroge- 
neous country school represent the two extremes of the 
common-school system. In one it is all system reduced 
to a monotonous routine, while the other presents all 
the varied beauties arising from the advantages (?) of fre- 
quent promotions — a systemless school. 

There is certainly need of reform in some graded 
schools, in which the whole machinery has become petri- 
fied, and a little shaking up would do the rigid fossil 
some good. But, while this is true, it is also true that 
the introduction of some system of classification into 
the ungraded and country schools is not only necessary 
but most desirable. 

In classifying pupils, there are some questions which 
are applicable to all schools. For this reason their in- 
troduction just here seems not inappropriate, and may 
be a help to teachers in either city or country schools : 

1. Has the pupil ever attended school? 

2. "What does he actually know ? 

3. After he has entered school, if at any time he is 
able to do the work of a more advanced class, is it the 
part of wisdom to promote him ? 

4. What influence on his health would an undue 
stimulus have ? 

5. Is he old enough to be rushed through his studies, 
and has he the constitution to bear it ? 

6. What are the home influences ? 

7. If he has been in school, why did he fall behind 
his class % 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 29 

The last question arises more frequently in graded 
than in ungraded schools. 

In the graded schools are representatives of the fol- 
lowing classes of pupils : 

(a) Those entering school for the first time. 

(h) Those who have finished the work of their grade. 

(c) Those who are able to go more rapidly than the 
average class, and are therefore the subjects of special 
promotion. 

(d) Those who have fallen behind in the regular 
class-work and can not keep up. 

Only in rare instances, if a pupil is regular in at- 
tendance, does he fail to " pass." 

The work laid out for each term is what the child 
of average ability is capable of doing. Many can do 
more. 

One of the chief reasons why the charge is made 
that children make slow progress in the graded schools 
is that those making the assertion fail to distinguish be- 
tween what young men and young women can do in 
school in two or three years, and the inability of little 
children to do the same amount of work in the same 
time. 

Maturity of mind is required to make extraordinary 
progress, and small children, unless precocious, do not 
have it. 

Were the pupils kept out of school till twelve or 
fifteen years of age, they could then do the work of the 
graded-school course of study in two or three years ; 
but we must consider this subject as it at present exists. 

Suppose the utmost tension is given to the graded- 
school system, are there not then weighty objections 



30 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

which play an important part in the education of chil- 
dren? 

(a) The frequent change of teachers is one of the 
disadvantages of the country schools. ]STow, if it be 
injurious to change teachers every few months in coun- 
try schools, how can the reverse of this be true for town 
and city schools % I know of no rules in reasoning that 
will warrant contradictory conclusions from the same 
premises, and both conclusions be correct. 

(b) It does not answer to say that the pupils are 
hurried through the lower schools till they get into the 
high school, and will then remain under the influence of 
the same teachers for three or four years. 

(c) Introducing an unnatural excitant has a tendency 
to destroy the main object for which public schools are 
supported and patronized. The idea, whether inten- 
tional or not, is held out to both teachers and pupils to 
prepare for promotion by "stuffing," "cramming," or 
" packing." These are the feeble words used to express 
the hurry and waste and haste in order to get through 
and make a show. Teachers feel that, if their brightest 
pupils are not hurried onward at race-horse speed, their 
services are not duly appreciated, and there is danger of 
losing their positions. This is certainly a serious ob- 
jection which I have not seen satisfactorily answered. 
Under high pressure, the object of education is not 
the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, but the 
delusive phantom of promotion, which is always tan- 
talizing to the mind of the sensitive pupil. The pu- 
pil, when leaving school, should go away with the con- 
viction that he has finished the school-work up to date. 

(d) The health of the pupil in this race is neglected, 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 31 

and the intense strain on the nervous system destroys 
the natural and healthy action of the vital functions, 
thus insidiously undermining the constitution and laying 
the foundation for disease. 

By exercising reasonable care in classifying at the be- 
ginning of the school-term, few mistakes will be made, 
and these may in a short time be corrected. The reme- 
dy is in the hands of the principal and teacher. Pupils 
should be promoted because they have completed the 
preceding work, or have the ability to go on with a 
higher class. Promotions for other reasons are usually 
a positive injury to all parties concerned. 

In the graded schools we call the first year in school 
the first grade, the second year the second grade, and 
so on through the eighth grade, after which comes the 
work of the high school. A difficult problem now pre- 
sents itself for solution, and that is the number of classes 
and the number of studies to be taken up by the pupils. 

Possibly three new branches of study besides read- 
ing are as many as any pupil can pursue profitably at one 
time. "Writing, drawing, and music are properly classed 
as " drills," but drawing is an excellent exercise for train- 
ing the hand, the eye, the judgment, and the imagina- 
tion. 

If a student has Greek, Latin, and mathematics, he 
has enough new work. These are the studies usually 
pursued in high-school and college classes. Some pupils 
take more, but the effect upon the health is usually bad. 
Hundreds of college students are wrecking their whole 
lives because teachers encourage them in this course. 
Year after year I look into the faces of pupils whose 
vital energies are being exhausted by mental overwork. 



32 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Movements of Classes. 

Suppose a young lady goes for the first time into a 
school-room to fill a vacancy occasioned by the absence 
of the regular teacher. The children are full of life. 
It is time for recitation. How shall she call out a class % 
One bright little girl reports that her teacher says "At- 
tention ! " and then taps with her pencil. The first tap 
means " turn," the second " rise," the third " pass," and 
the children pass to their places on the " line." This is 
a good way to give signals, and the movements are just 
what are needed. Eut suppose the teacher has been a 
little unsystematic. The new teacher says, " The class 
in the first reader will take their places." They run to 
their places, each child trying to be first. There is 
confusion, and it is difficult to get them into line, and 
to watch them. But, if the teacher is quiet and digni- 
fied, she will succeed, even though she does not under- 
stand the work of the regular teacher. It is a good 
plan for her to explain in this way: "When I say 
i one,' turn your feet into the aisle ; when I say ' two,' 
rise ; and when I say ' three,' pass to the place where 
you recite your lessons." 

I have seen children going to their places with their 
hands behind them, and walking on their toes. Old 
men sometimes walk with their hands behind them, but 
is it natural for children ? Teach children to walk and 
to stand flat-footed. Do not distort the natural form of 
a child for the sake of a death-like stillness in the school- 
room. 

In returning them to their seats at the close of. a 
recitation, the same plan should be pursued, first call- 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 33 

ing " Attention ! " which means to close open books 
and take position ready to obey the signals which will 
be given for them to turn and to pass to seats. The 
plan adopted by many teachers of having them stand 
at their seats till all are in place, and then be seated at 
one signal, is a good one. 

Movements at the Blackboard. 

Each member of the class should have his place 
assigned him. Then, suppose the lesson is in arith- 
metic, and there are Rye problems, let the class num- 
ber in sections of " five," each member of a section to 
have the problem corresponding to his number. Then, 
at a signal, all turn in one direction — to the left — till 
they face the board. If the names of pupils are not 
already written, at a signal they write names and num- 
bers. The next signal means "work." After a rea- 
sonable time has been given for placing solutions on 
the board, " Attention ! " should be called, when all 
should turn from the board, this time turning to the 
right. Explanations are then called for and given. 
At the close of the recitation, the signal " erase " being 
given, they obey it ; then, at the closing signal, " atten- 
tion ! " they turn from the board and stand in position 
ready to obey the signals which seat them. 

Programme. 

In a well-managed school there is a definite time for 
the beginning and close of every exercise. There must 
be a time-table so arranged and placed that the teacher 
may know just what each pupil is doing at any hour — 



34 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

that is, what lessons are being prepared and by what 
classes, as well as what recitations are being conducted. 
It is quite as necessary to assign time for preparation of 
lessons as for recitation and recreation. In making out 
a programme, it should be so arranged that the different 
classes have an equal number of recitations. Again, 
that programme is the best which provides that no two 
successive recitations are on the same subject, because 
those who are studying are less apt to have their atten- 
tion diverted from their own lessons, or to get assistance 
of a character which relieves them of the exertion re- 
quired to master their own difficulties. It is also impor- 
tant that the programme be placed so that all in the 
room can see it. The pupils should be taught to un- 
derstand it, and thus learn to be systematic in their 
work. 

As a fitting conclusion to this subject of programmes, 
I place here for inspection one which I prepared for 
country schools. It shows when each class recites, and 
what ; and, at the same time, what lessons are being pre- 
pared by the other classes. The recitations are printed 
in italics. 

The same general plan is that best adapted to graded 
schools, the teacher making necessary changes in the 
details. 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 



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36 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 



Analysis. — School Management. 

I. School=Houseo 

a. Location. 

b. Construction. 

1. Heating. 3. Lighting. 

2. Ventilating. 4. Seating. 

c. Well and out-buildings. 

d. Furniture. 

1. Clock. 3. Maps. 

2. Blackboard. 4. Charts, etc. 

e. Play-grounds. 

1. Walks. 3. Flowers. 

2. Trees. 

II. Organization of Classes* 

a. Basis. 

b. Ungraded schools. 

c. Graded schools. 

d. High schools. 

e. Colleges. 

III. Movements of Classes* 

a. How called. 

b. How seated. 

c. At blackboard. 

d. How dismissed. 

IV. Programme, 

a. Time-table. 

b. Preparation. 

c. Recitation. 

d. Subjects. 

1. Order. 2. Alternation. 



CHAPTER III. 

PEINCIPLES OF CLASS MANAGEMENT. 

Classes having been organized, how to manage 
them becomes an important problem for the teacher to 
solve. Very few teachers would hesitate to confirm the 
statement that " attention must be secured before in- 
struction can be given, or any school work successfully 
done." How to secure attention is the first lesson for 
the teacher to learn. The ability to do this when ap- 
pearing before a class of restless boys and girls is an 
all-important qualification for a teacher to possess, and 
especially so if the class is composed of small children. 

It is not easy to tell in words just how to get the 
attention of a class. Some persons seem gifted with 
the power to secure and hold the attention of any with 
whom they enter into conversation. Some call this 
power magnetism; we can not tell certainly. It may 
consist in the skill with which they can present a sub- 
ject ; it may be in the tones of the voice. Some teach- 
ers with soft, low tones have secured what commands 
could not have done. It was not the authority of the 
teacher over the attention of the child — that the teacher 
can not command in words. The faculty of attention 
in the child must be cultivated, so that it shall come 



38 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

under the control of his own will, which, in its turn ? 
must be guided by the teacher's will. 

Suppose a teacher appears before his class and tries 
to explain something about a lesson. Half the class 
is inattentive. The teacher is conscious of the fact, 
and yet he does not know what to do. The pupils dis- 
cover his helplessness and take advantage of it. The 
teacher fails, and the school is demoralized. 

Yarious devices are resorted to by teachers who can 
not easily secure the attention of children. They tell 
anecdotes ; they offer rewards ; they threaten to punish, 
and do many other things equally futile. It may be 
that the real secret of securing attention consists in 
knowing how to adapt the instruction to the capacity 
of the learners, how to interest them, and get them to 
tell what they know. As stated before, attention is 
not secured by commanding it, but by arousing the 
mind of the child to an interest in the subject. Hence, 
an important part of the teacher's work is so to train 
the child that he can, by the exercise of his own will, 
concentrate his attention upon whatever subject he has 
to consider. Children do not, at first, know how to do 
this ; it is a lesson they must learn. 

"When a person has learned how to fix his mind upon 
one subject to the exclusion of all else, despite outside 
influences, he becomes the thinker, the learned man, 
the great man; and this power is what distinguishes 
him from the ignorant man. It is not absent-minded- 
ness, it is not f orgetfulness, but it is the ability to take 
a subject, think only of it, turn it over and over, as it 
were, in the mind till it is understood ; beginning in 
the darkness of ignorance, soon letting in a little gleam 



PRINCIPLES OF CLASS MANAGEMENT. 39 

of light, the very faintest raj, perhaps, but leading 
out into the broad sunlight of knowledge through what 
seemed impenetrable darkness, the darkness of igno- 
rance. 

The teacher who would lead a class out of ignorance 
into knowledge, and attain the highest success in class- 
management, must himself possess this power — that is, 
he must be able to bring his own faculty of attention 
entirely under the control of his own will. Then, and 
then only, is he prepared to control the attention of a 



"We can conceive how a stone can grow by accre- 
tions to the outside, but we can not conceive how a 
human being can grow physically by such a process. 
It is true he might be encased in the shell of a mol- 
lusk, and thus appear to be enlarged externally, but it 
would not be true growth. Neither would it be true 
growth for the child to be covered all over, if that were 
possible, with knowledge as with a plaster. 

Physical growth is produced by the assimilation of 
the material used for food and drink, and conveyed to 
the different parts of the body. "We do not quite un- 
derstand the process, but the material is gathered and 
passes through the changes wrought by the various or- 
gans of digestion till it is prepared for assimilation and 
enters into the life-blood of the individual. 

And thus we grow intellectually. Information — 
food for thought — is gathered through the senses into 
the mind, and by the mind itself is prepared for as- 
similation, giving mental growth in the very effort. 

Again, the teacher should not forget that his pupils 
must get knowledge, must have ideas, and must learn 



40 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

how to express these ideas. If the teacher does all the 
talking, all the reciting, the pupils are being robbed 
of the benefits to be derived from the recitation. The 
pupil must recite, not the teacher. Can a child learn 
to walk if not permitted to use his own feet % Can he 
learn how to express his thoughts if not permitted to 
try % The teacher must guide, must lead over the diffi- 
cult places, must encourage the feeble, but must not do 
the work, must not recite for the child. 

A hungry child remains hungry still if he has but 
looked wistfully on while another has eaten the food. 
The hungry one represents the pupil who desires knowl- 
edge, and the other the teacher who recites, who talks all 
the time. What would be thought of the teacher who 
should argue as follows : " Should I not recite at least 
half the time ? Am I not here for that purpose ? Am 
I not to help the pupils ? lam the teacher, and I must 
talk about the lesson to them. I can do it better than 
they can." 

Neither should the teacher be an interrogation- 
point, doing nothing but asking questions, or reading 
them at the bottom of the page while the pupils fol- 
low with their fingers and glance at the answers as 
given above. That teacher is wise who is able to 
control his tongue and not talk too much. The apostle 
was right when he called the tongue an " unruly mem- 
ber." 

The teacher must explain lessons, but the explana- 
tions should be appropriate and pointed, so that even 
the dullest pupils can understand them. 

The above point suggests another. The teacher 
should manage to reach every pupil during every reci- 



PRINCIPLES OP CLASS MANAGEMENT. 41 

tation, but no one should know when he is to be called 
on. The question should be asked first, and in such a 
manner that it will apply to one pupil as well as to 
another, making all feel responsible for the answer, and 
then some one called on to recite. It is not as though 
each had a separate " grist to grind," and must stand 
in the line waiting his turn, as did the people in olden 
times, when each of those who went to the mill had to 
wait in the line " till his corn was ground and he could 
get his meal." 

Knowledge is not like meal ; each can take all, and 
yet all is left for the next hungry mind. No one is 
robbed, and all gain mental strength as well as knowl- 
edge. The faculty of attention is receiving cultivation, 
and the teacher is no longer troubled about how to 
secure attention. The difficult problem is being solved 
in a safer way than the "going up and down" method 
formerly so much in vogue, and the lesson of the day 
is not lost. 

In certain schools it was the custom for the pupil 
who came first to school to recite first ; and, if there was 
a class recitation, the head pupil recited first, and then 
waited till every other member of the class had been 
called on, when it came his turn again. If it was a 
reading lesson, the head boy read his " verse," whether 
in prose or poetry ; the second boy his, and so on down 
the class. If there were not enough " verses to go 
round," the recitation was ended. Occasionally, the 
words in the reading lesson were spelled. In the spell- 
ing classes, a good speller would spell nearly all the 
words. If a pupil missed a word, it was passed quickly 
to the " next," and the " next," and the " next," till it 
5 



42 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

got to a good speller, wlio -usually stood at the head and 
did most of the- spelling. 

How will that compare with a recitation like this % 
It was a class in Latin, and all the boys and all the girls 
wanted to answer. If one happened to make a mistake, 
the hands of all the others went np, showing that all 
were held responsible for the lesson. The teacher 
called on one after another, but in such a manner that 
no one knew when his turn would come. In a certain 
celebrated college in which there are many Yerj learned 
men, I once heard a lesson in chemistry recited. The 
class was seated, and the " professor " called on Mr. A 
to recite, and Mr. A stood up and told all he knew 
about the subject, and was excused. Then the " pro- 
fessor" called on Mr. B, and Mr. B gave attention. 
But, while Mr. A was reciting, I noticed that Mr. Y 
and Mr. Z were busy upon other work, and did not 
seem at all interested in what Mr. A was saying. When 
Mr. B got through, Mr. C prepared for consultation, 
and waited with a great show of respect for the question 
which he knew was sure to come, and his recitation was 
a repetition of what Mr. A and Mr. B had said. In 
this way the very distinguished professor worked on till 
he got through with Mr. Z. This, I learned, was con- 
sidered a model recitation. I should add that the very 
celebrated professor would not allow students to per- 
form experiments in chemistry & lest they break some 
of the little jars." 

The same system, I am sorry to say, is pursued in 
some other institutions of learning. There is this dim- 
culty-— so many teachers can only copy, copy, COPY, 
doing just what their grandfathers did, and in precisely 



PRINCIPLES OF CLASS MANAGEMENT. 43 

the same way. Some teachers still insist upon doing 
everything just as it was done by those who came over 
in the early days from England and Holland In these 
later days we oppose some of those old methods, and 
say they are not the best. Not a few living persons can 
remember when geometry was taught by " rote." The 
"professor" was often a person who knew nothing 
about geometry. A certain number of propositions 
were given for a lesson, and their numbers were written 
on pieces of paper and placed on the table. The mem- 
bers of the class, one after the other, drew each his lot, 
and examined it to see whether it contained a prize or 
blank. Whoever drew a numbered paper recited ver- 
batim the demonstration of the proposition having the 
same number ; but those who drew blanks had nothing 
to do. 

The temptation to encourage bright pupils to do all 
the reciting is one which teachers should resist. The 
bright children might be benefited, but such a course 
is intellectual death to the dull ones. The latter should 
receive increased attention ; the points over which they 
struggle should be developed, and the whole class bene- 
fited thereby. 

Let us take this circle, O, to represent the positive 
knowledge that is possessed by the pupil. Beyond this 
he has some vague ideas of some subjects, and these 
may be supposed to form a hazy outline to the circle of 
his definite knowledge. This circle is to be enlarged 
hj investigations in the misty regions beyond. 

Different subjects lie in different directions. In one 
direction there may be natural history, and the teacher 
desires to expand the pupil's mind in that direction. 



44: PRINCIPLES OP EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED.' 

To do this, some definite questions must be asked ; the 
pupil set to thinking. He must be encouraged to tell 
what he thinks, and then be required to get some defi- 
nite knowledge by further investigation out in that 
misty region. He has been shown how to find his way, 
and it is now time to observe a principle, too often over- 
looked, that the teacher should get a pupil to do all he 
can for himself, and not do his work for him. " Why," 
says a student, " is it not better for me, if I have studied 
a subject over and found it difficult, to get the teacher 
to do it for me ? It would save me so much labor, and 
it is the teacher's business to help me, to make my work 
easy for me." Pupils would usually be pleased to have 
the teacher do all the difficult work for them ; but those 
who can be induced to study a subject and master its 
difficulties alone will be most profited. The teacher 
should suggest the direction and method of study for 
pupils, and then, having put them on the road to certain 
knowledge, watch their progress. Having given them 
the clew, he should be sure that they have made an 
effort before he helps, and then not help them too much ; 
only just enough to help them help themselves. By 
their own mental effort comes their own mental growth. 
We are told that one of the Greeks had a problem to 
solve, and that, after he had spent some time in study- 
ing it over, he noticed that when he got into a bath-tub 
partly filled with water the water rose, and that when 
he got out it sank again. He thought of this for some 
time, and then rushed out crying " Eureka ! " He had 
solved his difficult problem ; he could find the cubical 
contents of an irregular solid by immersing it in a ves- 
sel full of water and measuring the water that ran over. 



PRINCIPLES OF CLASS MANAGEMENT. 45 

A teacher asked a class to tell him the number of 
cubic inches in a large irregular stone. They looked at 
it, but there was no solid like it. Some tried to divide 
it into triangular pyramids. They examined it very 
carefully. The teacher gave them more time for the 
study of the problem. The next day came, and several 
members of the class had learned that they could meas- 
ure it by putting the stone into water and seeing how 
far the water rose in the vessel. They remembered 
their own discovery better than if the teacher had told 
them, and the gain in mental power was of more value 
to them than any help the teacher might have given. 
Men have been known to work on one problem five 
years or more before they conquered its difficulties. 

Assistance must, of course, be given ; but when and 
how given are important questions. A certain teacher 
whom I once knew used to walk around the school- 
room to see how her pupils were getting along. If 
they were at work on a "sum," she would explain 
it and "work it out 5 ' for them. If they were studying 
a geography lesson, she would pronounce and explain 
all the hard words. She would even remain after 
school to help them prepare their lessons. She made 
a mistake in doing this. Help should be given before 
the whole class and during the time of recitation, and 
never at any other time. Pupils may complain of this, 
but it is the better way, especially for advanced pupils. 
Why? may be asked. Because, if an explanation is 
necessary, the whole class should hear it given ; the 
teacher of large classes can not afford to give private 
tuition to each member. With such a precedent estab- 
lished in the case of one pupil, others will soon de- 



40 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

mand it, and the teacher dare not then refuse, and soon 
becomes a slave to her pupils, who will neglect pur- 
posely the preparation of lessons at the proper time. 
Inattention results during the recitation, and the pupils 
are forming the bad habit of " procrastination." Re- 
member that part of the time of a recitation rightfully 
belongs to explanations for which the pupils then may 
ask. And it is just as important that they should im- 
prove this time as any other, and be held to strict 
account for it. I have seen schools in which the 
teacher, while engaged in conducting a recitation, was 
continually interrupted by pupils coming from their 
seats to ask unimportant questions, and to get help 
which they did not need. If they are permitted to do 
this, is it possible for the recitation to be of any value 
to the class % Can a teacher do more than one thing at 
a time % 

Just imagine a case like this : The teacher is con- 
ducting a recitation in arithmetic. A boy who belongs 
to another class is preparing a spelling-lesson ; he looks 
at the first word, names the letters over to himself, runs 
up to the teacher, who stops whatever she is doing to 
pronounce the word for him. By the time he gets to 
his seat he has named over the letters in another word. 
He drops into his seat, but bounces out immediately, 
and runs to the teacher, who stops again to pronounce 
the second word for him. The performance is re- 
peated again and again, till the teacher has pronounced 
every word in his lesson. He is not the only one. 
Other pupils have as much right to demand help as he 
has, and the continual interruption becomes an intoler- 
able nuisance. 



PRINCIPLES OF CLASS MANAGEMENT. 47 

A strict observance of the rule " to help only during 
the time of recitation " will not interfere with a gen- 
eral supervision of all pupils in a room. If they are 
under good discipline, and have been properly trained 
at the beginning of the term, they will not think of in- 
terrupting a recitation, but will devote the time to quiet 
study. 

Formerly, very little attention was given in schools 
to any written work outside of the regular lessons in 
writing. It is now quite the custom to divide the time 
of recitation about equally between oral and written 
work, and, while the benefits to be derived from oral 
recitation are not lost, the written work affords better 
opportunity for the teacher to reach and criticise the 
work of every one. 

It has been said before, but will bear repeating, 
" Train pupils to use their own language." Let each 
express his ideas in his own way, then criticise and 
correct. Be not too severe and discourage him, but 
make criticisms so as not to wound his feelings. You 
can test the accuracy of knowledge by the language 
used, unless it is a verbatim reproduction of that found 
in the book. 

There must be system, vigor, life in all good school- 
work. The teaching should be adapted to the capacity 
of the pupil, and the steps in passing from the known 
should be made easy. 

What a teacher says should be said in a definite, 
incisive manner, showing, confidence in self and in- 
spiring it in pupils. The teacher must be wide awake, 
must believe in his own ability to succeed, but must 
keep in mind the fact that he ought to be progressive, 



48 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

and never think himself too old to learn. He may be 
self-confident, but not egotistical ; must have that kind 
of self-confidence which insures success. 



II. Class Management. 

1. Secure attention by right methods. 

2. Adapt instruction to capacities. 

III. The Recitation. 

1. Length. 

a. Primary classes. 

b. Grammar classes. 

c. High schools. 

d. Normal schools. 

e. Colleges. 

2. Division of time. 

a. Review. 1. Definition. 

b. Lesson of the day. 2. Object. 

c. Criticisms. 3. How? 

d. General information. 4. When f 

e. Talk about the next lesson. 5. By whom % 

3. Assignment of lesson. 

a. Subjects rather than pages. 

b. Lessons too short rather than too long. 

c. Instruction — how to prepare. 

4. Object. 

a. To gain knowledge. 

b. Mental development. 



S 



CHAPTER IY. 

METHODS OF CONDUCTING RECITATIONS DIRECTIONS TO 

PUPILS — DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

There are three elements to be considered in con- 
nection with every recitation, not including the subject- 
matter : First, the method of conducting the recitation ; 
secondly, the pupils or persons to be benefited by the 
recitation ; and, thirdly, the teacher or person who con- 
ducts the recitation. 

Under methods there are three divisions : recitations 
may be entirely oral, entirely written, or a combination 
of the two methods. In advanced classes it is well to 
have recitations about half oral and half written. 

There are advantages in both oral and written reci- 
tations, but neither should be used to the exclusion of 
the other. 

If a recitation be oral, it must be either individual 
or concert, or both, the time occupied in recitation being 
divided between the two. 

If the recitations are by individuals, the choice lies 
between the consecutive and promiscuous methods. By 
the consecutive method, the pupil at the head of the 
class is required to answer first, then the next, and so 
on, in the order of their positions in the class. A 



50 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

serious objection to this method is that pupils soon 
learn to keep tally with the number of questions, and 
make close calculations as to what questions are likely to 
come to them, and will learn to answer only those, neg- 
lecting other parts of the lesson entirely. The plan 
of calling on pupils promiscuously is much better, secur- 
ing more surely the attention of the whole class to every 
part of the lesson, and making each member of the class 
feel that he is responsible for the answer to every ques- 
tion that may be asked, or for the omission of any 
point in the lesson if the recitation is by other than the 
method of questions and answers. 

As a general thing, recitations in concert should be 
avoided, and, if used at all, should be very sparingly 
used, never exclusively. Yet the concert recitation has, 
perhaps, advantages. Some children are very timid, and 
it is difficult to get them to speak so as to be heard. A 
concert recitation may give courage to such as these, 
but, if the courage thus gained is not sustained and ap- 
plied to individual work, even this is a doubtful advan- 
tage, and courage had better be developed in some other 
way. A very skillful teacher may use it in teaching 
reading when pupils have difficulty in pronouncing 
words, or are inclined to read too rapidly, or when he 
wishes to harmonize voices and bring them to a uniform 
pitch. It is also useful in teaching inflections. Few 
teachers, however, are able to conduct concert recita- 
tions without allowing pupils to acquire the sing-song 
habit, which, once acquired, is almost impossible to get 
rid of. 

When a teacher can not prevent this sing-song in 
concert recitation, he should banish the method from 



METHODS OF CONDUCTING EECITATIONS. 51 

Ms scliool-roorn. The effort to counteract the sing-song 
habit produces results but little better in reading. Here 
is an illustration : Not long since I heard a class of in- 
telligent children read. In conversation, their words 
were very naturally spoken ; but when they read it was 
very different. They had often recited in concert, and 
could sing it off in fine style. To break up this habit, 
they were required to stop after every syllable. This, 
too, was a severe struggle. Every feature of their faces 
assumed a rigid aspect. The muscles of their bodies 
were strained to the highest pitch, and they read this 
simple exercise, " Gyp was going to the mill, and he 
saw a frog," with a laborious effort, cutting and snap- 
ping at the words in a frightful manner. There was 
no variation in pitch, there was no attention to em- 
phasis, and every syllable was jerked out and snapped 
off as if the pupils were afraid of their own voices, 
which sounded so unnatural because of the great exer- 
tion they were making to read as the teacher had 
directed. A small boy was asked to read it. It was a 
repetition of what the class had done. When he closed 
the book and repeated it, he threw off that stiffness 
which hampered him when he tried to read from the 
book, and his tones at once dropped into the conversa- 
tional style. When this habit is once acquired, it takes 
months to break it up. 

It is best, I think, to conduct the recitations of small 
children by asking questions which they must answer. 
They have not the power of continued attention, and 
should not be required to do more than they can do 
easily till they have learned how to study, and they 
can not study so as to master a topic till they have 



52 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

learned how to read that from which they must study 
for recitation. 

Timid children must have a little help and much 
encouragement until they get well acquainted. 

For larger children, the topical method is used to 
great advantage, as it makes them rely more upon them- 
selves to remember all the points in the lesson, and 
forces them to greater effort in the use of language. 
The questions asked by the teacher are often very sug- 
gestive, giving a clew to the pupil which helps him, 
even though they may not be leading questions. 

If the classes are very large, a variation of the top- 
ical method is sometimes adopted. The different topics 
are assigned to different pupils, each being required to 
report upon his topic such information as he can get. 
This gives a collection of reports upon which they can 
institute comparisons, study and discuss relations, and 
so develop the thinking faculties. This method is par- 
ticularly adapted to classes in rhetoric, literature, and 
the natural sciences. 

Teaching by lectures can scarcely be called a recita- 
tion, but the same results are sought to be accomplished. 
In the German universities the students never recite. 
They listen to the lectures, take notes, and study up the 
subject. Then, as I understand it, when they are to be 
examined for graduation, each one goes alone before the 
faculty, and is questioned by all its members. 

Sometimes it is advantageous for a recitation to take 
the form of a discussion. Among older students, this 
is both interesting and profitable, and is admirably 
adapted to some of the subjects taught in normal 
schools and colleges. 



METHODS OF CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 53 

Again, there is the reciprocal method, which may be 
profitably used in ordinary school-work, and in most of 
the grades. In this, the teacher asks a question, and 
calls on " A " to recite. When " A " has recited, he 
asks another question, and calls on " Z " to recite. " Z " 
answers, and calls on some one else to recite. In this 
way the whole lesson is recited, the questions and an- 
swers passing from one to another till all have taken 
part. If one pupil can not give a complete answer, he 
may call on some one else to finish what he has begun. 
This method is particularly useful, in that it is apt to 
excite considerable animation among the members of 
a class. 

Eecitations entirely written are not common, nor are 
they to be desired except for examinations. 

The combination of oral and written recitations is 
usually that in which pupils are required to write a dia- 
gram or outline of the subject of the lesson, and then 
to recite from what they have written. It can not be 
very well employed with small children, but with 
larger ones, and through the school course, beginning in 
the middle grades, it is valuable, because it formulates 
and systematizes the knowledge gained, so arranging it 
in the mind as to make it available whenever it is needed 
for use. 

Knowledge to be available must be classified. He 
who does this by means of outlines, or diagrams, has 
his information at his command and ready for use, and 
is far better prepared than he who leaves it "lying 
around loose." 



54 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED, 



DIRECTIONS TO PUPILS. 

There are directions to be given to pupils which 
they must be required to observe. The first is this : 
"Stand or sit erect." Some of them have shoulders 
that tip forward ; some have not a strong digestive ap- 
paratus, and, if they are allowed to bend forward, their 
vital organs will be cramped and weakened. This di- 
rection has special reference to the care of their health, 
and upon its observance much of their success as students 
depends. It does not mean that they should always sit 
bolt upright, though it is better to do this than to ac- 
quire the habit of dropping the shoulders forward and 
contracting the chest, so that the lungs can not expand 
as they need to do in performing their functions. 

A close observer will notice that a person breathing 
takes every fourth or fifth breath fuller, deeper than the 
others, and thus unconsciously performs the act of ex- 
pelling impure air from the lungs. The person whose 
blood is in good condition is in good health ; but this 
is impossible if the blood is not purified by contact with 
pure air as it passes through the lungs on its way back 
to the heart after its journey as scavenger through the 
circulatory system. Drowsiness is a result of impure 
blood, and perfect mental development is checked. 

The class must understand all signals, and move 
promptly and quietly when they are given. It is worth 
while to spend several hours drilling pupils to a military 
precision in all school movements. The teacher who 
will do this establishes his authority in the school at the 
beginning, saves time, and avoids much subsequent fric- 
tion which might otherwise occur. 



DIRECTIONS TO PUPILS. 55 

£Tot only must pupils be taught to move promptly, 
but quietly ; there should be no stamping, no tramping. 
This has been spoken of before; but repetitions are 
sometimes necessary — they do not need to walk with 
their hands behind them, nor on their toes. They can 
walk quietly, easily, and naturally, placing their feet 
firmly and squarely on the floor. The tip-toe walking 
required by many teachers in order to avoid noise is 
unnatural and ungraceful, resulting too often in perma- 
nent awkwardness, and should not be tolerated a mo- 
ment. Suppose they do make a little noise; better 
that than to destroy the natural grace of childish move- 
ments. 

Pupils should at all times be polite to their teacher 
and to one another. A strict observance of this rule will 
make school-life both pleasant and profitable, and form 
a habit which will be an advantage to them when they 
come in contact with the world in after fife. 

Each pupil must recite in his own words. This is a 
necessary requirement. It does not mean that his lan- 
guage must be elegant ; it may be even incorrect ; but 
his ability to express whatever ideas he may have in his 
own words indicates that he understands what he has 
been studying. If he has mispronounced words, or his 
language has been grammatically incorrect, corrections 
may be made afterward. I have heard pupils recite 
history and other lessons verbatim, when they had no 
idea whatever of the meaning of the words they were 
repeating. 

Another direction to pupils in close connection with 
the last is to give every answer in a complete sentence. 
If they have the thought, they should be able to give 



56 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

entire expression to it. In no other way can their 
knowledge of a lesson or subject be thoroughly tested. 

Pupils must not " prompt " or assist one another. 
Each must depend upon himself if he would get the 
benefit to be derived from the recitation. 

They may raise hands, provided, first, that no one 
is speaking — politeness requires the observance of this 
rule; secondly, when they can answer; thirdly, when 
they can add to an answer ; fourthly, when they wish 
to criticise ; fifthly, when they wish to ask a question ; 
sixthly, when they wish to communicate with another 
pupil. 

They should always speak in low tones, not too 
rapidly, and always distinctly. 

DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

The last direction to pupils applies to teachers as 
well, for how can they expect pupils to speak in low 
tones of voice, slowly and distinctly, if they do not 
themselves set the example % 

Neither should the teacher " prompt " in recitation 
or examination, though the temptation to do so is very 
great. "Prompting" another destroys self-confidence 
and degrades self-respect. It is an unkind act, however 
well intentioned. The sooner the pupil learns that self- 
help is the best help, the better it is for him. 

The teacher should be polite to pupils. It always 
pays. One point I would insist upon is, that no teacher 
should ever address a pupil by his surname without pre- 
fixing a title. It is both coarse and rude. In address- 
ing a young lady, the title " Miss " should be prefixed to 
the surname. In speaking to a young gentleman, speak 



DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS. 57 

to him in a respectful manner, using the title " Mr." or 
" Master." In the case of younger pupils you may use 
their given names, but the manner should never be 
other than polite. Politeness, even to the verge of for- 
mality, does not weaken the ' authority of a teacher, but 
strengthens it by securing and retaining the respect of 
pupils. 

Do not repeat questions. This habit on the part of 
a teacher encourages carelessness and inattention on the 
part of pupils. 

Do not repeat answers. It is not necessary ; it 
wastes time, and makes the teacher appear like an echo- 
ing machine. 

Govern yourself; do not get angry. ]STever let 
pupils see that you are annoyed. Nothing so delights 
mischievous or vicious pupils so much as to see that 
they can annoy the teacher, and they are quick to follow 
up an advantage thus gained. Woe to the teacher who 
thus places herself at the mercy of " young tyrants " ! 

Govern your own pupils. Do not show weakness 
by asking the principal or school-board to come to your 
assistance unless in a great emergency. The teacher 
who is continually referring cases of discipline to the 
principal or board can not long maintain control of her 
pupils. 

Again, a teacher or person in charge of a school- 
room is supposed to be able to manage it, and all com- 
munications to or by any one in it should be made 
through her or by her permission. No person has a 
right to disregard this rule, whether a pupil or other 
person. 

Should a superintendent, director, or any one in real 



58 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

authority, even over the person in charge, wish to cross 
the room, or to address any one in it, he has no right 
to do so without first being recognized by, and obtaining 
permission from, the person in charge. The proper in- 
fluences can not be exerted in a school where the rights 
of all are not duly respected. 

Teachers should take care of their health, and bring 
vigor of body and mind to the recitation. 

They should always prepare the lesson. Even if it 
is a simple subject, the teacher should know just what 
is in it, and the ideas of the author of the text-book 
used. He should know just how he intends teaching 
it, and how to meet and explain difficulties apt to arise 
in the minds of the pupils. The teacher who thinks 
there is nothing to be done but " grind out the lesson 
of the day by asking a few set questions " and listening 
to the corresponding answers has much to learn. New 
fields are opening all the time, and teachers must keep 
abreast of the times if they would succeed. There is 
a spirit to be brought out, developed, in the boys and 
girls. It is for the teacher to arouse and direct the 
energies of her pupils, so that they will become inter- 
ested, and do their best in every recitation. 

The words and acts of teachers should be such as to 
honor their profession. 



DIKECTIONS TO TEACHERS. 59 

Methods of Conducting Recitations. 

1. Oral. 

a. Individual. 

1. Consecutive. 2. Promiscuous. 

b. Concert. 

c. Questions and answers. 

d. Topical. 

e. Lectures. 

/. Discussions. 
g. Reciprocal. 

2. Written. 

3. Oral and written. 

a. Diagrams. 

b. Outlines. 

Directions to Pupils. 

1. Stand or sit erect. 

2. Obey signals. 

a. Promptly. 

b. Quietly. 

3. Be polite. 

a. To teachers. 

b. To one another. 

c. To everybody. 

4. Give answers. 

a. In your own words. 

b. In complete sentences. 

5. Do not prompt. 

6. Raise hands — when 

a. No one is speaking. 

b. You can answer. 

c. You can add to answer. 

d. You wish to criticise. 

e. You wish to ask a question. 

/. You wish to communicate with any one, 

7. Speak. 

a. In low tones. 

b. Slowly. 

c. Distinctly. 



60 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Directions to Teachers. 

1. Speak. 

a. In low tones. 

b. Slowly. 

c. Distinctly. 

2. Do not prompt. 

a. In recitation. 

b. In examination. 

3. Be polite to pupils. 

4. Do not repeat. 

a. Questions. 

b. Answers. 

5. Govern yourself. 

6. Govern your own pupils. 

7. Prepare for recitation. 

8. Let all your acts and words be worthy of your profession. 

9. Be 

a. Original. 

b. Enthusiastic. 

c. Energetic. 

d. Spirited. 

e. Systematic. 
/. Kind. 

g. Cheerful, 
h. Firm. 

i. Self-possessed. 
Jc. Dignified. 
I. Patient. 



CHAPTER V. 

LENGTH OF RECITATION. 

In this chapter will be considered the length of reci- 
tation, the assignment and preparation of lessons, and 
criticism. 

A recitation should not continue too long ; nei- 
ther should it be too short. If it is too long, pupils 
grow weary, the teacher can not hold their attention, 
and the advantages of the recitation are lost ; if the 
recitation is too short, the subject of the lesson can not 
be properly discussed or understood. In colleges, reci- 
tations are usually about an hour in length ; in high and 
normal schools, from thirty to forty minutes ; and in 
graded and ungraded schools they vary from ten to 
thirty minutes in length, being ten, fifteen, or twenty 
minutes in primary rooms. In looking over a pro- 
gramme recently, I observed that the teacher had ar- 
ranged it so as to give ten minutes daily to the most 
advanced grade in arithmetic, ten minutes to United 
States history, ten minutes to the class in physical geog- 
raphy, and ten minutes to -the primary class. He had 
arranged for a certain number of classes, and thought he 
must give the same length of time to the beginners that 
he gave to advanced pupils, and that every recitation 



62 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

should be just ten minutes long. " JSTow," said he, " the 
people can not complain, for I give as much time to 
the little children as I do to the large boys and girls." 
This programme was published in the newspapers to 
show the particular work of the teacher in the school- 
room. It might at first appear to be just, because of 
the equable division of time. But, when we come 
to examine the subject carefully, most of us would 
agree in pronouncing it unjust. And why? Let us 
consider it in this light. Little children can not con- 
trol their attention for a great length of time, hence 
their recitations should be short, lest they grow weary 
and learn nothing. "With larger children, who have 
learned to keep the attention longer under control of 
the will, and who have learned how to study a new sub- 
ject understandingly, it is quite different. They are 
better prepared for recitation, and can bear extended 
criticism and the questioning and cross-questioning of 
the teacher and classmates better than little children. 
For this reason it is quite evident that the length of a 
recitation for small children should never be more than 
fifteen minutes. 

In the higher grades of ward-schools, and the ad- 
vanced classes of ungraded schools, thirty minutes may 
be profitably given to recitations, but never more. In 
a normal or a high school, forty minutes should be the 
limit of length of recitation. The two extremes must be 
avoided. Time enough should be given to have all the 
points in a lesson brought out and understood, but in 
no case should the recitation be continued" so long that 
pupils lose their interest in the subject. 

The length of the recitation determined, the division 



LENGTH OF RECITATION. 63 

of the time is of importance. Since every lesson is 
connected with the one preceding it, five or ten min- 
utes should be taken for review. 

Suppose the recitation to be one in general history. 
History is a continuous stream ; it is not simply the life 
of an individual, but of humanity ; and we look upon 
all humanity as passing down the current of time. We 
study that stream from its source. We look back over 
thousands of years into the early ages, or we glance 
forward a thousand years into the future, and we dis- 
cover that everything is related to something else — 
every event to some other event. This relationship is 
not only true in history, but equally true of the facts in 
the sciences, whether of the natural sciences or the sci- 
ences of political and social economy. The time set apart 
for review will give opportunity to discuss this. Then 
allow ten or fifteen minutes for the blackboard work. 
Dividing the class into sections corresponding in num- 
ber to the number of topics in the lesson, let the pupils 
pass to the board and write outlines of the topics. That 
done, the remainder of the time well improved will be 
ample for oral recitation upon these topics, and for the 
introduction of general information gathered by pupils 
from outside sources which they think may have some 
relation to the subject of the lesson. This relationship, 
if existing, may be shown ; or, if their judgment is in 
error, the error may be made to appear, and their men- 
tal faculties receive additional culture by this. 

For illustration, one teacher required all the pupils 
in his room to write each week the new facts learned 
during the preceding week. On one occasion some of 
the pupils brought in notes upon the trouble between 



64 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

China and France, while others had been writing about 
" comet dust," supposed to have been the cause of the 
red light seen evenings and mornings in the sky ; still 
others had been investigating the proceedings of " the 
Court of Inquiry," and others had followed out a line of 
railroad between two cities remote from each other. It 
is possible to bring to bear upon a historical question 
a great many facts, and the relationship of a railroad to 
the history and development of the country through 
which it passes may be shown to have a bearing upon 
the lesson of the day. 

The teacher who is no broader than a text-book is 
narrow indeed. He should understand a subject so 
thoroughly that, if the text-book were lost, he could 
teach as well without it as with it. In the German 
schools the teacher must be able to stand before his 
classes and conduct his recitations without the aid of 
text-books, and, if necessary, throw additional light on 
any point not fully presented by the author. Each sub- 
ject should be taught as though the teacher were a 
specialist in that subject. 

You know what Emerson's views were upon success- 
ful teaching. In teaching, as in everything else, the 
secret of success is inspiration ; and the inspired teacher 
can get pupils to know their own ability to do some- 
thing. In a primary-school not long since, I saw a 
good illustration of this. There were many of the 
children so small that they could not put on their over- 
coats. The teacher arranged the children in platoons, 
and the larger children assisted the smaller ones. Many 
primary teachers complain of having to dress and un- 
dress the children. This teacher had found a way out 



ASSIGNMENT OF LESSONS. 65 

of the difficulty. She directed the children, and they 
did the work. 

Assignment of Lessons. 

It is important that lessons be properly assigned and 
carefully prepared. Much progress has been made in 
the last few years in this department of educational 
work, and, in order to give the reader an idea of how 
things have been done in some old-time schools, I will 
tell the story of an ambitious boy who studied arithme- 
tic under difficulties. He had studied reading and 
spelling for some time, when the teacher, in a gracious 
mood, said to him one day, Ci George, I think you are 
big enough to cipher." George, very much elated, ran 
home as soon as school was out and told his father what 
the teacher had said. His father was delighted, and 
promised to get a slate and an arithmetic for him. 
This promise he sacredly kept, and the next morning 
George was the happy owner of a slate of immense 
proportions, and a copy of Smith's arithmetic. He 
felt grand indeed as he entered the door of the old log 
school-house at the end of the lane. He showed his 
new property to the teacher, who gave him his first 
exercise in arithmetic. The teacher said, " If you have 
one apple in your right hand, and another apple in 
your left hand, how many apples have you in both?" 
Could such an exercise ever be forgotten? George 
solved that problem, and, happy in the knowledge that 
he might have two apples, turned over a leaf or two in 
the book and came to the addition table, which he com- 
mitted to memory, and then worked on as fast as he 
could through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and 
7 



$6 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

division. Iso lesson was ever assigned by the teacher ? 
but he simply worked out each day as many problems 
as he could. "Whenever his slate was full he showed it 
to the teacher, who would say, " Yery well done," arid, 
with a shy glance at the slate covered with figures, hand 
it back as quickly as possible. He never had a recita- 
tion. When he came to a problem too difficult for 
him, he took it to the teacher, who solved it (if he 
could). In the same school, in the reading lessons, each 
one read a " verse," as it was called, the teacher correct- 
ing the mistakes in pronunciation. Whenever the 
teacher did assign a lesson in anything, it was assigned 
by pages, never by topic. 

The lesson assigned should be as much as the aver- 
age pupil can learn well. Care should be taken not to 
give too much, and thus discourage pupils, nor too lit- 
tle, but enough to require earnest effort on the part of 
the pupil to master it. 

There should be a definite time for taking up and 
studying a subject, and a definite time for laying it 
aside. At no time and on no account should a teacher 
go beyond the minute, or allow a pupil to do so. The 
order of exercises should be so distinctly understood by 
the pupils that they know when to prepare every sub- 
ject as well as when to recite it. To enable them to 
meet this requirement, the programme should be placed 
on the blackboard where all can see it. 

To recapitulate. The important points in assigning 
a lesson are : 

First. Assign subjects rather than pages. 

Secondly, Assign as much as the class can well pre- 
pare. 



ASSIGNMENT OF LESSONS. 67 

Thirdly. Let the lesson be a little too short rather 
than too long. 

Fourthly. Instruct the pupil as to how you wish the 
lesson prepared. 

The last is a very important point. 

Should you wish to teach pupils how to commit to 
memory, select a sentence for example the following : 
" With regard to the origin of the cause, there has been 
the greatest diversity of opinion." Bead it slowly 
through — once, twice, three times, as many times as you 
think necessary — and close the book; then try to repro- 
duce the sentence from memory, thinking carefully 
about it, and referring to the book if necessary. Ex- 
plain to the pupils, in words, the process, showing them, 
hy the use of terms simple enough for their comprehen- 
sion, that we commit to memory by repetition — that 
iteration is a law of memory. 

It has been asserted that more pupils fail in arith- 
metic from the fact that they do not understand the 
language than from any difficulty there may be in the 
subject itself. The teacher must be sure that they get 
the idea, and then illustrate to them the process of ex- 
pressing the idea. In arithmetic this is done by the 
solution and explanation of a problem, using the rule 
that is given as a guide. Having read the problem 
carefully through, do with it just what the rule directs, 
taking one step at a time, and describing it fully as it 
is taken. The problems and rules fall under certain 
general principles, the use of which children should be 
taught to understand, and not required to commit to 
memory. The rule is like a sign-post, showing which 
way to go; but definitions should be committed to 



68 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED, 

memory by the process already indicated, when the lan- 
guage is fully understood. In every definition there is 
what may be called the " key -word/ 5 without which the 
definition loses its force, and this very word is often the 
one children are inclined to omit. A little care on the 
part of the teacher will teach the children to look for 
the "key-word," and the learning of definitions will 
not be very difficult. As an illustration, take the defini- 
tion of the " greatest common divisor " ; omit the word 
" greatest " in it, and the whole definition is wrecked. 

In teaching children how to study, impress upon 
their minds the value of cheerful, earnest study. In- 
sist upon cheerful faces, and set the example yourself ? 
even though behind your own apparently cheerful face 
there linger traces of care, of anxiety, of illness. The 
very effort to appear cheerful drives away much of the 
hidden pain, and the children should not be permitted 
to suffer because the teacher suffers. If she is irritable, 
they become so ; if she suffers, they suffer ; for they are 
sympathetic, are imitative, and any disturbing element 
hinders progress in their school-work. Lively, pleasant 
manners in the teacher are indispensable to success. 

How to deal with those who are unprepared for 
recitation is a most perplexing question. "What should 
be done with a boy who will not prepare the lessons % 
It should be so managed that he will feel the loss. He 
may be sent home ; it is his loss. But there may be 
reasons to justify his failure ; there may be sickness at 
home, or misfortune of some kind. It is still his loss, 
for a class can not be kept back for the sake of one 
pupil. The only thing at present recommended is 
that he be held responsible for the discovery of the 



CRITICISM. 69 

lost points In the subject ; he must find the means for 
his own relief. A wide-awake, industrious teacher can 
make such use of the time spent in the discussion of the 
general information topics, and their relation to the sub- 
ject of the lesson, as to compel the pupils to feel that 
they can not afford to lose a single recitation or any 
part of it. 

Criticism 

is not simply fault-finding, pointing out errors; it is 
judging, and applies to the separation of errors from 
truths. Wholesome criticism is necessary, but commen- 
dation should be given when deserved. ~Now comes 
the question, "Who should criticise?" I think that, 
in advanced classes particularly, the pupils should be 
the first to do this. If their criticisms are correct 
and exhaust the subject, the teacher has little to do be- 
yond presiding and supervising. If any important 
points have been omitted, the teacher should call atten- 
tion to them. 

How to criticise is more important than who should 
do it. The object of criticism must be kept in view, 
and the criticisms, though just in pointing out errors, 
may be so made as to defeat the object. To illustrate : 
Superintendents sometimes criticise teachers. This is 
the way in which it was done on one occasion : The 
superintendent was a man of very determined will. He 
went into the room of a teacher whom he did not ad- 
mire very much, although he found her doing as well 
as she could. He was not pleased with the exercises, 
and said to her, " That is wrong ; do it this way ; do 
it that way," in a sharp, angry tone of voice. This con- 
fused her so that she began to weep. His manner 



70 PBINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

shocked the pupils. They sympathized with their 
teacher. The criticism was unjust, because of its man- 
ner and the place in which it was made. He should 
have spoken to the teacher privately, or have written 
memoranda and made suggestions for her guidance. 
He should have spoken in the proper spirit and in a 
kindly manner. Instead of bluntly saying " That is 
wrong," it is better to say, " I think that, perhaps, you 
would find some other way preferable to that," and ex- 
plain that other way. 

There is much in knowing how to present a subject, 
how to criticise without giving offense. One of the 
most learned men of the times softens his criticism by 
giving it as his mere opinion. He says " I think it is 
this way*" Every one who hears him knows that he 
is correct in the statement that he makes, and that he 
knows that he is correct; and yet he speaks as if he 
might possibly be in error, to avoid giving offense. Re- 
member — criticise so as not to offend. 

As a summary of thoughts on criticism we give : 

First. Let pupils criticise. 

Secondly. The teacher should notice omissions in 
criticisms made by pupils. 

Thirdly. The teacher should commend pupils for 
whatever is well done. This stimulates to renewed ex- 
ertions. 

Fourthly. Criticisms properly made are remembered 
and suggestions acted upon. There is no need of re- 
peating them. 



CHAPTEE VL 

AUT OF QUESTIONING. 

1. Genekal methods of questioning. 

2. Personal questioning. 

3. Questioning pupils. 

4. Pupils questioning one another. 

5. Book questioning. 

The great questioner of all ages was Socrates, the 
Grecian philosopher. Socrates, as a philosopher, sought 
not so much to establish the truth of a statement of 
philosophy dogmatically, as to involve persons by apt 
questioning, make them entrap themselves, and thus 
lead them to see the defects of their definitions. 

For instance, if a definition was asserted to be true, 
Socrates questioned in his own mind whether the as- 
sertion was correct, and then, in conversation with 
the person who made the statement, he would seek, 
by a series of questions, to involve him in contradic- 
tion, perhaps in several, contradictions, and show, by 
his methods of questioning, that the statement was 
not true, but false. Hence originated that method 
which has been handed down to us from ancient times, 
and which we call the Socratic method. I would recom- 
mend to those interested in the art of questioning the 



72 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

study of some of the dialogues in which Socrates was 
the questioner. JS[ot that those examples pertain par- 
ticularly to school work, but to show the skill with 
which he put his questions. At the present time, those 
persons who question most adroitly, and whose busi- 
ness it is to test the truthfulness of certain propositions, 
are found in the legal profession. Lawyers, especially 
those noted for their skill in the cross-examination of 
witnesses, adopt the methods of Socrates. 'Not alone 
in the legal profession, however, but in that of teach- 
ing, is there afforded a fine field for the display of ability 
in the art of questioning. 

It has been already stated that the pupil must learn 
for himself ; that the teacher can only guide him in cer- 
tain lines of thought. The art of questioning correctly 
is in strict harmony with this proposition. Pupils are 
not always so questioned as to develop their mental 
faculties. Hence, for a full discussion of the subject, 
I have suggested the above outline : First, the general 
methods of questioning ; secondly, personal questioning 
—that is, questions that the pupils should ask them- 
selves, or that the teacher should ask himself ; thirdly, 
questioning pupils, in which the teacher displays what- 
ever ability he may possess ; fourthly, pupils question- 
ing either the teacher or one another; fifthly, book 
questioning. 

GENERAL QUESTIONING. 

Much of the work in the school-room is carried on 
by questions and answers. The methods are either oral 
or written, or a combination of them. With beginners 
the exercises are almost exclusively oral. A written 



ART OF QUESTIONING. 73 

question should have but one meaning, and that so 
clearly stated that no mistake could possibly occur. In 
preparing questions of either kind, the teacher ought 
to keep the objective point prominently in view. By 
gradual steps the pupil is conducted to a certain height, 
as it were, whence he is enabled to recall the successive 
efforts put forth to reach it. A series of questions, be- 
ginning with what a pupil knows, and so fitted together 
that each question depends upon all that precedes it and 
builds upon that, is an educational appliance which any 
teacher may be proud to invent, but which can not be 
secured without close and careful application and a quick 
insight into the varying moods of the human mind. 
Whether a teacher should ask oral or written questions, 
depends upon circumstances. 

It is conceded that oral questions enable a teacher to 
make his work tell, and to inspire his pupils with genu- 
ine enthusiasm. There is an electric shock from the 
eye and an inspiration from the voice which stimulate 
pupils to do their best. But a languid and sleepy eye, 
a weak, undecided, and faltering voice, no matter how 
excellent the teacher's other qualifications may be, will 
disorganize any school and spoil the pupils. 

Let the questions be so put that they will bring out, 
or suggest, ideas to the pupils, and that they enable 
them to arrange what knowledge they possess in a sys- 
tematic manner. Random, incoherent questions are to 
be avoided while trying to fix an idea in a pupil's mind. 
One thought well grounded is of more value than a 
dozen others only partially understood. 



74 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 
PEKSONAL QUESTIONS. 

The following questions are suggestive to the teacher 
preparing for a recitation : 

1. What does this lesson contain ? 

2. Is it adapted to the pupils studying it ? 

3. How much time will be required by the pupils 
in its preparation ? 

4. Am I thoroughly prepared to conduct this exer- 
cise? 

5. How is it related to what precedes it ? 

6. How is it related to what follows it ? 

7. What new material is needed with which to illus- 
trate it ? 

8. Shall the children furnish the illustrations, or 
shall I furnish them ? 

9. How is this subject related to other subjects in 
this book ? 

10. How shall I show these relations ? 

11. What are the natural divisions of this sub- 
ject? 

12. Can I induce the pupils to find out the divisions 
for themselves? 

13. Shall I use the analytic or the synthetic method, 
or shall I use both methods in presenting this subject 
to the pupils ? 

14. What difficulties are the pupils most apt to have 
in mastering it ? 

15. What faculties of the mind are exercised in 
learning this lesson ? 

16. Are any members of my class deficient in these 
faculties ? How can they be developed \ 



ART OF QUESTIONING. 75 

Vj. How can the knowledge gained from this lesson 
be utilized in after life % 

18. In what respects are my methods defective ? 

19. How can I improve % 

20. Is my language such that my pupils can under- 
stand % 

21. Do I speak in a loud, harsh, grating voice ? 

22. If so, what effect does my talking have upon my 
pupils ? 

23. Do I pronounce correctly all the words that I use ? 

PERSONAL QUESTIONS EOK EACH PUPIL. 

1. Do I comply with all just requirements in school % 

2. Do I give entire attention to my work ? 

3. Am I always honest % 

4. Am I always polite ? 

5. Do I connect what I learn each day with what I 
had previously known % 

6. Can I apply the knowledge I have gained to the 
every-day affairs of life ? 

PUPILS QUESTIONING. 

Pupils should be encouraged to ask questions — that 
is, proper questions. When Des Cartes, the celebrated 
philosopher, was a boy and went to school, he con- 
tinually tormented his teachers with questions, and was 
called the " boy philosopher." He has since then tor- 
mented the world with questions. It is often said that 
little children will ask questions that the wisest can 
not answer. This spirit (or faculty) of asking questions 
needs to be cultivated in the right direction, otherwise 
it becomes offensive. 



76 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

In intermediate and higher grades, when a pupil 
makes a statement or explains a problem, if he be forced 
to defend his assertions and demonstrations against the 
adverse criticisms of his classmates, he is taught a prac- 
tical lesson in cautiousness which will save him many 
mistakes in after life, and create in him that habit of 
mind which is called by some writers, judicial. Such 
criticism, properly conducted, has a strong tendency to 
keep this point clearly before the mind of the pupil, 
namely, to give a good reason for what he oelieves. 
This is the everlasting "why" which presses upon 
every rational being. 

If you wish to know the difficulties pupils have 
with a lesson they are trying to master, you must know 
how the subject appears to them ; you must understand 
them ; put yourself in their places ; see from their 
standpoint. Yery well did that novelist express it 
when he said " Put yourself in his place." If he had 
never written anything else but that title to his book, 
he would have suggested a volume in that one short 
sentence. Teachers must learn to see a subject as their 
pupils see it, and keep in mind that children are not 
empty vessels to have knowledge poured into them, 

BOOK QUESTIONS. 

Book questions are good for that class of teachers 
called out in the West " reciting-posts." On the banks 
of the Mississippi River there are posts to which 
rafts are hitched by ropes, and then pulled slowly to 
shore. Some teachers use the "book questions" ex- 
clusively. These questions serve but as the ropes, 
and children, like the rafts, are held, simply drifting 



ART OF QUESTIONING. 77 

till they get through the book from the first page to 
the last. 

The time has come when the best teachers are those 
who ask four or five questions not on the page for 
every question there. The tendency of recent years is 
toward cultivating independence of thought on the part 
of pupils, and to give them power to question for 
themselves, and to see what questions should be asked 
and answered. 

APPLICATION. 

Success in the art of questioning pupils consists in 
asking such questions that they must answer freely and 
independently without prompting or assisting. The 
questions should in no way suggest the answers. I know 
that many teachers are strongly tempted to " prompt " 
pupils who are anxious to answer the questions cor- 
rectly. But it is far better for the pupil that he be 
not " prompted," but rely entirely upon himself. The 
art of questioning a pupil properly consists in asking 
such questions as will test his knowledge of the sub- 
ject, and not in making a display of the teacher's 
knowledge. 

Suppose you ask a pupil to tell you the differences 
between a noun and a pronoun, and he tells you as 
many of the differences as he can think of. You then 
ask another pupil to tell you in what respects they are 
alike, and he tells you all the agreements he can think 
of between them. Each answers in his own language, 
and in complete sentences. Then, after all have an- 
swered, if there is anything additional that you can 
think of, you try to bring it out by asking questions — 
8 



78 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

such questions as make the pupils think out what is de- 
sired. 

Ask questions like these: "In what respects are 
decimal and common fractions alike ? In what respects 
do they differ ? " Do not " prompt them." Let them 
tell jou all they know about it. When one gets through 
reciting, correct his language or make suggestions if 
necessary. Do not allow pupils to throw up their hands 
as soon as a question is asked, or when a mistake is made. 
This is one of the ways of " prompting " practiced in 
schools. Let the pupils wait, as has been suggested 
before, till the person reciting gets through or is ex- 
cused. Then, if they have corrections to make, let them 
raise their hands. It is said that in some of the Scotch 
schools, when a question is asked, all the pupils of the 
class rush toward the teacher with hands up, all wanting 
to speak at once. 

In questioning children, the skillful teacher asks 
questions adapted to them, comes down to the plane 
they occupy, gets them to tell what they know, sets 
them to thinking, and leads them to see the relation 
between the starting-point and that which he wishes 
them to reach in the circumference of their knowledge. 
It is in the questioning of pupils that the teacher needs 
most to be an artist. 

The first educational work I ever read was that 
grand book on the " Theory and Practice of Teaching," 
by David Page. It is a book that every teacher should 
read. It was that book which first opened up to my 
mind the fact that there was anything in the work of 
education above the mere hearing of classes. It was 
the inspiration of that book while I taught my second 



ART OF QUESTIONING. 79 

country school that gave an impetus to my whole life. 
I read of the two trees — the straight tree and the 
crooked tree ; and, when I had learned how difficult it 
is to straighten a crooked tree, I felt that, as a teacher, 
I had a higher, more important work to do than simply 
to ask set questions and listen to the answers given by 
pupils in the words of the book. When I read that 
chapter in which is discussed the subject of asking 
questions, and in which he tells about visiting a school 
and hearing a recitation in mental arithmetic, I looked 
about among my acquaintances, and found that nearly 
all the teachers I knew were following the same method 
that was there portrayed in such glowing language. 

TOO MUCH HELP — ANECDOTES. 

"Visiting a school not long since, I found a class of 
children that were reading about "a child." They 
were bright but noisy children. Having heard the 
subject announced, I was curious to know just what 
line the teacher would pursue, since it did not exactly 
state whether the child was " a boy or a girl." How- 
ever, the teacher struck out as follows : 

" How many think the child was a girl ? " No time 
was given for an answer. " How many think it was a 
boy?" No time for answer. "How many think it 
might be either a boy or a girl ? " No time for answer. 
" How many think it was either a boy or a girl ? " No 
answer, but a few raised their hands. " How many are 
positive one way or the other ? " A few hands raised, 
but still no answer. " How many believe it might have 
been?" Then a pause, but the hands did not go up. 
"Now, what shall we say about it?" There were no 



80 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION" PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

hands raised, but they were getting ready. Then John 
said, " I don't know." That was the first answer. " Yes, 
that's all right. We will now go on," said the teacher. 

At another time a friend invited me to visit a school 
in the country. The teacher had told me that the pu- 
pils in his school understood mental arithmetic better 
than the pupils in city schools. I was quite willing to 
go and ascertain the truthfulness of his statement for 
myself. One of the school directors of that district 
went with me. We had been in the room but a few 
moments before 1 came to the conclusion that it must 
be the same school that David Page had visited forty 
years before. In order to show off the class, three girls 
were called out to recite in mental arithmetic. They 
were using a book which is used in many schools. One 
of the problems given was this: "If f of a certain 
number is 12, what is that number?" They were 
ready for recitation. The teacher gave the question 
slowly and distinctly, and then said, "Mary will an- 
swer." Mary said, " Well, if f of a certain number is 
12, what is that number?" "Now, Mary, you have 
first to find f?" "Yes." "Well, f of 12 is 4?" 
" Yes." " No, no, no, no ; now watch again. If f of 
a certain number is 12, what are you to find ? " " Well, 
I am to find the number." After he got through, he 
looked around with a triumphant air. " Well," I said 
to him, " will you please let me ask the girls a ques- 
tion?" "Certainly." I said, "If 15 is f of a certain 
number, what is that number?" He answered three 
questions before I could get the attention of the girls 
to one, and would persist in helping them. I asked the 
teacher to let the girls answer, but he would interrupt, 



ART OF QUESTIONING. 81 

and commenced : " Now, you want ^ of 15 \ " " Yes." 
u ]N~ow what is 4 times 5 ? " 

A CONTKAST. 

I visited another school, the teacher of which is one 
of the most successful in the art of questioning I ever 
knew. When I entered his room but one pupil was 
out of order, judging bj the most fastidious standard 
adopted in schools. That one boy was not sitting just 
in line. The teacher was conducting a language exer- 
cise, and asked the pupils to write sentences using the 
words meet and meat. Two points were to be ob- 
served : both the words must be used in one sentence, 
and the sentence must be written in good English. One 
boy wrote, "I will meet my father after 1 buy the 
meat." The class agreed that the sentence fulfilled the 
conditions. The decision of the teacher was not re- 
quired. 



CHAPTER TIL 

TEACHING READING. 

Theee are a few important preliminaries which can 
not be omitted without detriment to the pnpil who 
is learning how to read. The pnpil should be taught 
how to sit and how to stand so as to give his vocal 
organs and his respiratory organs free, easy, and natural 
action. He should sit or stand erect, hold his chin 
down near his throat, breathe through his nose, keep 
the muscles of the neck and face relaxed, shoulders 
thrown backward and slightly downward, stand firmly 
on one or both of his feet, hold the book at a convenient 
distance from the eyes, so that both eyes see the words 
under the same visual angle. He must also be taught 
how to inhale and how to exhale air, as well as how to 
economize his breath in reading and convert it into 
sound. So far this work is mechanical, and it has 
reference to the pupil as a machine capable of run- 
ning without friction or danger of breakage, but with- 
out such attention liable to accidents of the gravest 
character. Just as the human voice is an instrument 
of the most wonderful powers, and susceptible of the 
highest degree of improvement and perfection, so is it 
important that it, with the breathing apparatus, should 
be developed in a rational and harmonious manner. 



TEACHING READING. 83 

In order to teach reading well, the teacher must 
know what are natural, pure tones of voice, and how to 
develop such qualities of voice in the pupils, provided 
their tones are defective in any manner. The human 
voice, in one sense, is an instrument possessing the most 
delicate and wonderful properties in regard to quality, 
form, pitch, force, rate, and stress. A teacher whose 
ear is not trained to detect the harsh and discordant 
tones that children sometimes employ, and, even after 
detecting them, does not know how to remedy them, 
is unfit for teaching reading. We might as well com- 
mit the care of the sick to that pretended physician 
whose recommendation to practice medicine is a stolen 
diploma from some printing-office, and who does not 
know disease from health. 

An experienced reader will at once detect any im- 
purity in the quality of the voice, and in drilling he 
knows just how to correct it. If a child does not know 
the multiplication-table, his progress in arithmetic is 
slow indeed, and if he is allowed to continue his faulty 
methods in reading, and the teacher does not see them, 
or is ignorant of the treatment the case requires, the 
result .will be worse than zero. 

Heading is the most important, as well as the most 
difficult, branch to teach in the entire course of in- 
struction — the most important, because the most used 
and the most necessary ; and the most difficult, because 
the least understood and appreciated. It is the first 
study of the child at school, and the one that he uses 
daily ever after. It is very properly denominated "the 
key to all knowledge," hence the reason it should be 
correctly taught in all grades, but more particularly in 



84 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

the primary. If neglected here, the probabilities are 
that the pupil will never become a good reader. 

To show that it is not appreciated, we have but to 
refer to those occupying public places whose vocal deliv- 
ery is anything but pleasing, and whose reading is simply 
outrageous. Even many who have graduated from the 
best institutions in the land have entirely neglected 
that culture which would enable them to read appro- 
priately a section from a statute, an extract from the 
Bible, or a hymn for a congregation. These persons 
are careful in the use of language, written and spoken, 
frequently refer to the dictionary for correct pronun- 
ciation, and would be only too willing to acquire a full, 
round, musical tone" of voice, so as to read and speak 
with grace, propriety, and ease, But too late in life 
they discover that one essential part of their education 
has been sadly neglected. 

It is not in public only that good reading exerts 
an influence ; it may be in the highest degree a source 
of pleasure and instruction in the home circle. A 
good book, read aloud at home, not only disseminates 
useful knowledge, but is a power in the formation 
of character. How important, then, that our school- 
children should be taught correctly in this branch, 
which, above all others, is the universal branch of edu- 
cation ! 

We will endeavor to test every step in the discussion 
of the subject before us — teaching reading by the edu- 
cational principles which have been already presented. 
At this time there is a general awakening in reference 
to teaching reading to all grades of pupils. A promi- 
nent educator has made this definition: "Heading is 



TEACHING HEADING. 85 

getting and giving thought by means of written or 
printed words arranged in sentences." 

An excellent teacher, who had given much thought 
to the subject, denned it as follows : " Eeading is the 
process of conveying ideas from a manuscript or book 
to our own minds or to the minds of others." 

"Elocution," according to Mr. Hamill, "is the 
science of expressing thought and f eeling by utterance 
and action." These definitions are worthy to be re- 
membered, compared, analyzed. Do this, and then 
make definitions of your own if they are not satisfac- 
tory. 

Since a large majority of children attend school 
only a few years at most, there is an urgent necessity 
for correct instruction early in life, and especially so in 
teaching reading to primary classes. 

In all instruction the teacher should keep in view the 
fact that the pupil is soon to help himself, and in im- 
parting instruction in reading — the foundation-study — 
this principle should not for a moment be lost sight 
of. The child must become a self-reliant worker, not 
a mere imitator. With this in view, each lesson should 
exercise the perceptive faculties, the imagination, the 
taste, and the judgment. 

The sum of all reasons why reading should be 
correctly taught is this : Upon correct reading — namely, 
getting the sense out of what is printed or written — 
depends every other acquisition. 

Eeading resolves itself into certain distinct elements 
which the teacher must observe: 1. Foremost is the 
object. 2. The processes. 3. The principles. 4. Ap- 
plication of the principles. 5. The child and the kind 



86 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

of culture that his nature requires. 6. The literary 
selections adapted to each class. 

In what precedes, the object of reading has been 
pointed out, and it need not be repeated. 

As to processes, there are many, and they go by dif- 
ferent names. The teacher is stumbling over them 
almost every day. Perhaps the most ancient and ven- 
erable method is that known as the "ABC method," 
once in vogue, but now retired from active service. A 
few strong authorities still indorse it. They advocate 
it because it goes away back to first principles — straight 
and curved lines. It has age in its favor, but, in my 
opinion, no other recommendation. 

Ideas are first awakened in the mind by impressions 
made on some one or more of the senses. We do 
not know how these impressions are transformed into 
ideas, but the transformation does occur, nevertheless. 
The second step is this : The idea in the mind must be 
expressed through the medium called language. Read- 
ing, therefore, consists in giving expression to the ideas 
the mind has formed. 

If the ideas be false or inadequate, the expression 
of them will be correspondingly false. 

The methods yet to be discussed proceed upon the 
hypothesis that the child has something in his mind 
which he wants to express, and that the teacher stands 
by to help him to tell it properly. The second method 
is the " word method." This method consists in taking 
some familiar object, as a "hat," and then letting the 
children talk about it to the teacher. In due time the 
teacher calls attention to the spoken word, " hat," and 
finally to the printed or written word, "hat." The 



TEACHING READING. 87 

children soon learn the connection between the spoken 
word and the printed or written word, and they may 
also know how to spell the word by letter and also by 
sound as well as how to write it. The essential point 
in this method is that the pupil learns to know a word 
by its looks, and upon the same principle that he learns 
to know a cat from a cap. It is even claimed that a 
child may learn two or three hundred words in this 
way, before he knows a single letter of the alphabet. 
Reading under such conditions is naming the words 
with correct expression. 

Observe, first, the idea ; secondly, the expression of 
the idea. The manner of expressing the idea is read- 
ing. It is impossible for a pupil to express his ideas 
clearly and intelligibly unless he first feels that he has 
something to say, and knows how to say it. 

As will be observed, the unit is the word, and there 
must be as many elements or different words to learn 
by sight, if the vocabulary be an exhaustive one, as 
there are words in the reading-book the pupil uses. 

Another method is that known as the "sentence 
method." The sentence is the unit. The pupil learns 
a sentence by its looks. A string of words to him is a 
sentence, and, hearing the sentence read, he attaches a 
meaning to the sentence as he understands it, and then he 
tries to connect the spoken with the written or printed 
sentence. Repeating the sentence with different modu- 
lations of the voice will enable the pupil to observe and 
practice those turns or slides of the voice which add so 
much to the beauty of vocal delivery. It is also claimed 
that pupils may learn a large number of sentences with- 
out even finding out the separate words composing 



88 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

them, yet it hardly appears credible, owing to the well- 
known disposition of children to tear things to pieces. 
Of course the advocates of this method claim superior 
advantages in its favor. 

If we consider the sentence as the unit of thought, 
then, naturally, the word is the unit of language, and 
the letter is the unit of words. Whether the teacher 
employs the " word method" or the " sentence method," 
the idea precedes the word or the sentence. The thing 
itself goes before the sign. "Words and sentences are 
visible or oral expressions for ideas already in the 
mind. 

Again, the clearer the concept is in the pupil's mind, 
the better will he express himself. If the reading be 
of such a nature as not to add any new thought to the 
thoughts the pupil already has, then his work is value- 
less. To add to the intellectual acquisitions of the 
mind is to combine simple concepts into more com- 
plex ones, and that study which does not furnish such 
material as is readily assimilated by combination must 
be classed low in the scale of mental culture. 

!Now, the starting-point in any system of reading 
must depend, first, upon the idea in the mind, and, sec- 
ondly, upon how to express that idea in such tones 
of voice as the sense indicates. Heading viewed from 
this elevated standpoint offers the very best field for 
the exercise of all the higher faculties of the mind, 
as well as for arousing into vigorous activity the entire 
emotional nature. Indeed, I do not know of any other 
branch in the entire curriculum of studies that appeals 
so powerfully to every faculty of the human soul, nor 
do I know of any other subject that in general is so 



TEACHING EEADIXG. 89 

poorly taught. The voice is something that needs cult- 
ure, and, if impure tones have been acquired, the teacher 
ought to know how to correct them at once. If no bad 
habits of voice have been contracted, the voice needs 
cultivation to give it smoothness, volume, intensity, and 
compass. Naturally, the child-voice is pure, and it is by 
gross negligence or mismanagement that impure quali- 
ties of voice are fostered. 

An experienced musician detects instantly the slight- 
est discord — even the country singing-school master can 
tell whether all his pupils sing the same note ; but, 
positively, there are thousands of " school-keepers " 
who are unable to point out as glaring mistakes in read- 
ing as a failure to sing the scale correctly would be in 
vocal music, 

PHONIC METHOD. 

This method as such differs from the others. The 
names of the letters are not spoken, the sounds only 
being taught. Take the word "bat." A is simply 
sounded as a. The whole word may be analyzed by 
giving the sound of each letter. The teacher should 
give each sound first, letting the child repeat it. To 
get the sound of a, let the child speak the word "at" 
after the teacher, slowly, and then begin to say the 
word and leave it unfinished, not giving the sound of 
" t." By such practice as this phonic analysis is easily 
learned, and the relation between the sound and the 
name of a letter is soon established. 

A teacher who will show to her class the exact po- 
sition and movements of the vocal organs, with a little 
special explanation in individual cases, will be aston- 
9 



90 PRINCIPLES OP EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

ished to discover that very little time will be required 
to teach a class to give all the sounds accurately. Those 
teachers who have difficulty in distinguishing or giving 
the sounds can, by studying the positions of the vocal 
organs, conquer the most difficult sounds or combination 
of sounds. To illustrate : take the long sound of " a," 
which any one can give, and notice the position of the 
lips, tongue, and the mouth. From that sound of a go 
at once to the short sound a, watching in a looking- 
glass, if necessary, the change in position of the mouth, 
until you are familiar with the process, and can explain 
in words those elements of the change which the chil- 
dren can not see. Some positions of the vocal organs 
close the mouth, so that the children can learn to make 
the correct sounds only by imitation and practice. 

Whether children learn to read at first by the 
word, sentence, or phonic method, they soon learn the 
names of the letters. At least this has been my expe- 
rience, and it is a fruitless waste of time to adopt sub- 
terfuges in order to avoid teaching the names of the 
letters. Only a few persons ever had any trouble in 
learning the names of the letters, and most of them 
learned their letters so easily that they have forgotten 
when and how they did learn them. 

As I understand the method of Colonel Parker, 
formerly of Quincy, he uses no book at first, but, with 
the children before him, takes a familiar object and 
talks with the children about it till they become inter- 
ested in it. He then draws a picture of the object on 
the board, and from this picture the children draw one 
on their slates. The name of the object is written 
beneath it in a large, bold hand. All the letters are 



TEACHING READING. 91 

written unusually large. When the word is written 
underneath the picture, the children have made the 
distinction between the object and the picture, and also 
between the spoken word and the written word, and, 
since all progress in the acquisition of knowledge de- 
pends upon the ability of the pupil to point out agree- 
ments and differences, it is readily perceived that this 
method has many excellent features to commend it. 
But Mr. Parker has the children learn to read script 
first. The philosophy for this I can not discover. The 
teacher writes the reading-lessons for beginners on the 
board. They see it produced by her own hand, and it 
is claimed that this gives it a freshness and a personal 
inspiration that are wanting in the printed form. It 
is also a fact that children will readily change from the 
written to the printed form without loss of time. The 
transition either way is easy. 

The skillful teacher is not a person of any one 
method, but a person of methods ; able, as it were, to 
take the good out of all, and combine it into a working 
system of her own. 

There is no valid reason, so far as I can discover, 
why the child from the first should not spell all the 
words in his lessons by letter and by sound. He must 
learn the names of the letters as well as the sounds, and 
it will require only a few days for the child of ordinary 
intelligence to learn both. 

jacotot's method. 

While this method is particularly adapted to acquir- 
ing a knowledge of a language unknown to the learner, 
it is so suggestive in other respects that I refer to it in 



92 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

order to show the resources of a teacher who stands in 
the foremost rank of the great educators. M. Jacotot ? 
a Frenchman, in 1818, was called to teach pupils who 
were Hollanders. He did not know one word of the 
Dutch language, and thej did not know one word of 
the French language. Here was a problem. I met a 
similar case in a northern city while visiting schools 
there a few years since. A young lady who had been 
reared in the South had secured a position in a part of 
the city settled by Germans, whose children could not 
speak a word of English. She could not speak a word 
of German, and so she sang to them at first. 

But mark what M. Jacotot did. Fie took as the 
text-book the French classic, " Telemaque." It was in 
French, but with an interlinear translation in Dutch writ- 
ten under the French. He had to give his instruction 
to the children through an interpreter — a curious way 
to teach a language — beginning, not with a reading- 
book, not with a grammar, but with one of the very 
best specimens of French literature. His plan was to 
have them commit every word to memory. There it is 
—the first word "Calypso." He had them repeat it 
again and again after him until they knew it. He gave 
them a word at a time till they knew the whole sentence. 
Then he questioned them. The principle upon which he 
worked was that of learning one thing well, and compar- 
ing everything else with it. "When he had taken up all 
of the first sentence — " Calypso could not console herself 
for the departure of Ulysses " — he asked questions. He 
had told them nothing about Calypso or Ulysses, except 
just what they could gain from that sentence. He 
asked them such questions as these : " Who was she ? 



TEACHING READING. 93 

"What did she do ? " He then took up the second sen- 
tence, and the third sentence, and, when they had 
learned all in this book, he turned them back and had 
them repeat it. After this we are told by M. Jacotot 
that those Dutch children used better French than he 
himself or any of the professors in the institution. 

Mr. Joseph Payne, an eminent English teacher, took 
a boy eleven years old to teach him Greek. He wished 
to try experiments. The boy had been hammering 
away at the Greek grammar. Mr. Payne heard of Ja- 
cotot's method, and said he would try it with this boy. 
He did not use an elementary book, but began with the 
" Iliad," following the Frenchman's method, and when 
the boy had learned a few pages in this way he could 
read the whole. His testimony is that one can learn a 
lauguage by this method in one tenth the time required 
by any other process. 

"With the word, the child learns to read. He re- 
peats the word, giving all the different inflections. 
There is wonderful power in the human voice ; it can 
express every emotion by means of the different inflec- 
tions, rising or falling in pitch, and changing the tones, 
uttering words rapidly or slowly, with more or less 
force. This power can be shown by taking the letter 
" O " and giving in its utterance the various inflections 
of which the voice is capable. After the children get 
a few words, their vocabulary is rapidly enlarged. 

CAUTIONS. 

Primary reading is the important work. Everything 
depends upon a right start. There is too great a dispo- 
sition on the part of inexperienced teachers to give 



94 PRINCIPLES 01* EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED, 

long lessons at first, especially to small children. There 
is sometimes danger of giving to larger children lessons 
which are too simple. Here is an illustration of this : 
A gentleman teacher was exceedingly partial to some of 
"Whittier'g poems, and he had his class read "Maud 
Muller " day after day, week after week, and almost 
month after month. They would read it over and over 
again every day, and finally he asked if any one had a 
question to propound. One boy, who had been very 
patient, arose and said : " Professor, we have been talk- 
ing about this fellow ' Maud Muller ' for a long time. 
Kow, I want to know who he was, where he came from, 
and what, he was about." 

There must be variety. A one-string violin makes 
poor music. The first words given to children should 
be short ones, and when a word is once learned well, 
there is no need of constantly repeating it. 

For children of the first or lowest grade, three new 
Words are enough to introduce at one lesson. 

It is asserted by a good authority that, out of every 
ten hours devoted to reading in school, nine hours must 
be given by the pupil in trying to find out the author's 
meaning. 

To read well, thoughtful study of the words, their 
meaning in combination or when standing alone, is an 
essential condition. 

To enlist the pupil's attention, the lessons should be 
simple in character, interesting in matter, suited to the 
understanding,' and elevating in their influence; and 
in every reader there should be some beautiful gems 
of literature, and these the children should commit to 
memory. 



TEACHING READING. 95 



ADVANCED READING. 

Instruction in the more advanced classes is some- 
what different from that of the primary grades. 

Not only must the pupil be able to pronounce the 
words correctly, but there is a wider scope for the ex- 
ercise of all his mental powers. 

In reading a paragraph, he must decide upon a com- 
bination of elements, and how each element is to be 
represented. The prominent ones are to be brought 
out in strong contrast with the weaker ones, the group- 
ing preserved so as to bring into the mind of the hearer 
the harmonious blending which pleases the ear and sat- 
isfies the taste. 

To read thus intelligently implies a critical and cul- 
tivated taste, and an ear and eye capable of appreciating 
the beautiful in thought and expression. 

And while the voice may not be trained well 
enough to produce a pleasing effect upon the listener, 
yet the taste sets a higher standard than is reached, and 
the result is constant improvement in the delivery. 
The aim then of higher grade work in reading is to 
cultivate properly this critical faculty, and to set before 
the pupils each day higher conceptions of expression in 
utterance and action. 

Since there is an intimate relation between the 
mind and the body, between thought and the thinker, 
between the thing as it is thought and the expression 
of the thought, the teacher never once loses sight of the 
fact that the body is the channel of communication 
between the two. 

"While the mind forms its conceptions, the body, as 



96 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

the instrument of the mind, expresses to others the ideas 
thus formed. To give expression in a perfectly natural 
manner is what is meant " by studying nature." 

As there is a language of the body, unwritten in the 
books, but known and understood by all men, the child 
should be trained that every movement of his body 
Is the expression of a thought, and furthermore, that 
his work as a learner consists in perfecting himself so 
as to bring his bodily organism into complete subjection 
to his will. By utterance and action every style of 
thought — from the most tranquil to the most impas- 
sioned — can be expressed. "When the pupil sits or stands 
erect ; breathes naturally and can economize his breath ; 
holds his book in the proper position ; speaks the words 
with accuracy and precision, and in a pleasant and pure 
tone of voice, and is easily understood, his reading is 
such as any ordinary teacher may well be proud of ; 
but to secure depth, volume, and elasticity of voice, 
daily practice upon the elementary sounds is absolutely 
necessary. 

In summarizing the results to be accomplished by 
the pupil in reading, the following points are to be kept 
constantly in mind : 

1. To pronounce distinctly all the words so as to be 
heard. 

2. To emphasize all the words so as to oe understood* 

3. To express the thought so as to be felt. 

4. To attain clearness in expressing thought — sepa- 
rate and contrast ideas. 



TEACHING HEADING. 97 

Teaching Beading. 
I. Object. 

1. Definition. 

2. To gain knowledge and pleasure. 

3. To give knowledge and pleasure. 

II. Processo 

1. Talking. 

2. Seeing. 



III. Methods. 

1. Alphabet. 

2. Word. 

3. Sentence. 

4. Phonic. 

5. Parker's. 

6. Jacotot's. 

IY. Elements. 

1. The intellectual element. 

2. The mental element. 

3. Vocal. 

4. Physical. 

V. Talking. 

1. Object. 

2. Idea. 

3. Words. 

4. Association and reproduction. 

VI. Seeing and Hearing. 

1. Object. 

2. Idea and word. 

3. Picture. 

4. Expression. 



CHAPTEK Till. 

TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 

Composition is the art of expressing ideas and 
thoughts in words. It is of two kinds : oral composi- 
tion and written composition. "Written composition is 
divided into two kinds, also : ordinary school composi- 
tion and higher composition. Of the latter there are 
many forms, the most common of which is that written 
for the press. This is seen in the newspapers and maga- 
zines, and presents every variety of subject of general, 
local, or temporary interest to the public. There are, 
besides this, historical, biographical, scientific, literary, 
and all the various forms which appear in books, and 
are of more general and permanent interest. I mention 
these departments because the work of the lower pre- 
pares for the higher. 

I shall now speak particularly of that form of com- 
position which pertains to common-school work. 

Under the mental process, we have, first, to acquire 
knowledge ; secondly, to elaborate or classify that knowl- 
edge ; and, thirdly, to express it in language, either 
spoken or written. This is oral or spoken composition 
for which the children have made some preparation by 
talking, hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling, and smelling. 
They have made some acquisitions that we will call 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 99 

their own. In the school work the first object is to get 
the children to express their thoughts in language 
which is intelligible to other persons. 

In the beginning the child learns how to talk from 
imitation, and from imitation alone. Observe the lit- 
tle child in his efforts to talk; he watches the move- 
ments of the lips, and imitates the sounds he hears. A 
person in learning a foreign language gets the peculiari- 
ties of pronunciation by imitating the teacher's voice. 
Eo book description can teach an American to pro- 
nounce the French language correctly. It is learned 
from the voice only. It has been said that few per- 
sons over thirteen can ever learn foreign languages so 
as to speak them without what is called an accent, so 
difficult is it to get the vocal organs into proper position 
to make new sounds after they have been employed for 
years in making certain familiar sounds. 

It has even been asserted by some that a child learns 
to use a language almost exclusively by imitation, and 
should never study a grammar for that purpose ; but 
that he should use it afterward for the purpose of de- 
termining whether a sentence is correctly or incorrectly 
expressed, and that this is the function of grammar. 
This opinion is worthy of serious consideration. 

After the child has acquired the ability to talk, to 
express his thoughts in spoken words, comes this new ac- 
quisition, that of writing. It puts a new and greater 
power into a person's hands when he can, with the 
pen, write down his thoughts and send those written 
thoughts to others. It puts the thoughts into perma- 
nent form, preserving them for future or for distant 
use. In ordinary conversation we meet face to face to 



100 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

talk. Conversation is oral composition ; but, having the 
ability to write, we can talk with persons on any other 
part of the globe. 

Hence, one of the greatest discoveries made by man 
was that of the alphabet, giving him an easy means of 
communicating his thoughts to others. He puts letters 
together to form words, signs of ideas; and then these 
words together to form sentences, expressions of 
thought. 

There are many methods of teaching the art of coin- 
position ; attention is invited to a few of them. 

Suppose we have a class of children, say six years 
of age, such as are found in the first or lowest grade. 
The teacher takes up some object, it may be a book ; the 
children look at it ; they talk about it. The teacher 
asks a few simple questions. It is not meant that a 
teacher is, or should be, an interrogation-point only, 
doing nothing but asking questions ; but the teacher 
who can question skillfully, who knows how to draw 
out what there is in the mind of the child — a teacher 
who can use this, the Socratic, method properly — is al- 
ways successful in his or her work. 

As the children talk about the book, they become 
interested in it, and the teacher can write before the 
class on the board the word "book." Then ask the 
question, " Who can tell me something about the 
book % " Many hands go up, and some one, a little 
boy or a little girl, says, "It is a brown book," or 
" It is a large book." Let the children express them- 
selves in short words, the teacher being careful to 
use words that the children understand. The teacher 
should then write the sentence on the board. If it is 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 101 

not expressed very well, have some one express it bet- 
ter, giving sentence number two. The question " Who 
will tell me something else about the book % " will bring 
up the little hands again, and some one is called upon 
to answer, and sentence number three is placed upon 
the board. Keeping on in this way, sentence follows 
sentence until there is a reading lesson. This method 
of teaching oral composition may be continued for a 
year or two, using familiar subjects. 

After the children are sufficiently advanced, they 
may be questioned in regard to the object, and then, 
when they are able to do so, they should write on their 
slates, on the blackboard, or on paper, what they know 
of the subject presented, after proper directions have 
been given. 

Another method sometimes pursued with fourth- 
and fifth-grade pupils may be of interest. The teach- 
er selects a list of words, say ten, and pronounces them 
to the school without telling the pupils how to spell 
them. They write the words as they think they should 
be spelled, and then look in their dictionaries for these 
words. This is a more advanced form of composition, 
and the children bring in the next day, or within the 
next two or three days, the ten words correctly spelled 
and defined. They don't know why these words were 
given, but on the second day the ten words are pro- 
nounced to the class as a spelling-lesson, and are spelled 
correctly. Then the teacher reads a short story in which 
these very words are used, and from which they had been 
selected without the name of the story being told to the 
children. The next day they reproduce the story as near- 
ly as they can, putting into the sentences the ten words. 
10 



102 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. ' 

Another very good method of teaching composition 
writing in the intermediate grades is the selection of 
pictures by the teacher. The pictures are fastened on 
the wall of the school-room, and the pupils are asked to 
write descriptions of what they see in the pictures. 
The work is tested by comparing the composition with 
the picture. 

Frequently very abstract as well as very dull sub- 
jects are assigned as suitable topics for school essays. 
A child can not call up much original knowledge " from 
the depths of his inner consciousness." The waters in 
that pool are usually turbid. The skillful teacher will 
avoid such topics. 

Let the children write about things that they know, 
or something that they have done. Their own experi- 
ence and observation should be woven into composi- 
tions. They may describe bits of travel, a visit, the 
school-room, and the articles it contains ; a flower, an 
apple, etc. But the teacher should note how carefully 
and accurately the descriptions agree with the objects 
represented. For a child to describe well, he must ob- 
serve carefully. A class of children had written very 
learnedly on " the cat " ; but, when asked how many 
toes the cat has on its forefoot, silence reigned in that 
room. Yet these children had written on " hope," " re- 
wards," "punishments," and "the elephant," prior to 
the exciting theme of " cat." 

It is not intended to go into any elaborate account 
of methods of correcting compositions. Enough to say 
that, as penmanship is systematically taught in all grades 
of schools, there is no valid excuse for poor penmanship 
now unless some physical disability exists. Minute 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 103 

directions for marking all errors are given in most 
treatises on compositions, so that I have bnt few sug- 
gestions to offer. 

1. The pnpil should write a bold, legible hand. 

2. He should display taste and judgment in the 
matter and form of his composition ; that is, the manu- 
script should look as neat as possible in its general ap- 
pearance, and impress the eye favorably. 

3. Spacing, capitals, spelling, and punctuation must 
be rigorously attended to. 

4. Small words are apt to be preferable to large ones. 

5. Short, pointed sentences are better than long ones. 

6. "Write on one side of the paper. 

T. In all cases of doubt, the pupil, if somewhat 
advanced, should consult the dictionary and English 
grammar. 

The following expresses my views so fully that it is 
inserted at length : 

" Not enough composition is taught in our common 
schools. To write a good composition requires time 
and hard work. Schiller, when he composed his poems, 
walked up and down the room repeating the verses to 
himself to see if they struck his ear well. The sub- 
ject must not be too general ; the subject must not be 
too difficult. The teacher should lend his assistance 
and instruct his pupils in the construction of correct 
sentences." * 

"It is true that there is not enough composition 
taught in the common schools ; it is equally true that 
there is not enough taught in the high-schools ; in fact, 
there is very little teaching of the subject done any- 
where. The work is required of the pupil, usually, and 
he is to ' make bricks without straw ' ; draw thoughts 

* Professor Kemp. 



104 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

from a brain that has no thought on the subject ; ex- 
press these thoughts in good language, when he has no 
command of language ; arrange his topics in logical 
order, when he has no idea of either logic or order ; and 
punctuate properly, when he has no knowledge of 
the utility of any mark save the interrogation-point. 
Composition, as it is usually taught (?) in the schools, 
is the bugbear of not only the pupil but the teacher. 
Instead of being daily work, like other studies, oc- 
cupying the time which its great importance de- 
mands, it is a weekly work, usually, occupying perhaps 
an hour ; instead of the subject being one that is within 
range of the grasp of the child's comprehension, it is 
one so far above his comprehension that he gropes in 
the dark hunting for some thoughts until the hour for 
writing is nearly closed, when he by accident stumbles 
upon something he thinks must be an idea, and, hastily 
grasping it, jots it down ; instead of building up the 
work, from the single word to the simple sentence, 
from the simple sentence to the compound sentence, 
from the compound to the complex sentence, from the 
sentence to the paragraph, from the paragraph to the 
essay, they build downward, or try to, beginning with 
the essay, and, by the time the teacher has finished the 
corrections, ending with the word ; instead of develop- 
ing ideas of form, color, size, place, utility, difference, 
and agreement in their pupils, before they require them 
to write about objects that possess these qualities, these 
ideas are presupposed by the teacher to be already pos- 
sessed by the pupil, with the power of arranging them 
in logical order. Imagination, observation, and concen- 
tration of thought are mental powers easily developed in 
the average child, and are inseparable requisites of good 
composition ; yet it is true that, while they are easily 
developed in the average child, it is equally true that 
these powers exist as possibilities only in the young 
mind, awaiting either development or destruction. The 
average teacher requires a boy whose power of imagina- 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 105 

tion lias been all crushed out of him by the peculiar 
circumstances of his life to write a composition on a 
subject which requires the highest order of imagina- 
tion ; and thus with observation. Concentration of 
thought is required in all composition, yet pupils are 
required to write lengthy essays when this power has 
been so little cultivated that it might well be indicated 
by a term denoting less than zero. It is time that com- 
position received the amount of consideration in all 
schools which its importance demands, and it is also 
time to revolutionize the work of teaching the subject, 
beginning at the bottom and teaching upward, instead 
of at the top and teaching downward." * 

If the child is properly instructed, there is no reason 
why he should not write his thoughts with the same 
ease as he speaks them, and with more accuracy. This 
is possible only when writing his thoughts is a part of 
his daily school work. Constant and persistent practice 
of the right sort will enable the child to use the language 
as an instrument of thought. The habit of requiring 
pupils to copy their reading-lessons on their slates may 
become a positive hindrance rather than a help or aid to 
composition work. Pupils required to do a great deal 
of copying grow careless and work mechanically, and, 
in time, lose interest and put no thought-work into what 
they are doing. This may be tested in the following 
easy manner : Tell the pupils to close their readers, and 
then let the teacher read — only a few words at once — 
and ask the pupils to write what the teacher reads ; to 
capitalize and punctuate the extract read. When the 
work is completed, ask the pupils to compare their work 
with the paragraph or paragraphs read by the teacher, 

* Gertrude T. Johnson. 



106 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

and which they copied. Note the variations from the 
text. 

If it is a " new piece/' the teacher should read it 
over once, slowly and distinctly ; and then read it again 
a little at a time, for the pupils to copy. Compare 
results again. 

The following directions should be kept in mind : 

1. Let the little children write about things they 
have seen, things they have heard, or things they have 
done. 

2. Let older pupils read over a lesson, close the 
book, and then reproduce it ; lastly, compare their work 
with the original. 

3. At dictation, require advanced pupils to write 
sentences of certain prescribed forms. 

Illustration : To write a sentence having a subject, 
transitive vera, and an object, each of these elements 
modified by a transitive clause. 

4. Give particular attention to the expression of the 
thought as well as to the thought itself. 

5. Encourage the more advanced pupils to enlarge 
their vocabulary of words, and to discriminate sharply 
in the use of words. 

6. In original composition : seek (1) a definite idea 
of what is to be said ; (2) the choice of the right words 
to express it. 

7. Aim at clearness in the expression of thought. 

8. To acquire a graceful style, study the best writers. 

Grammar. 

Already the composition work involves a great deal 
of practical grammar. Grammar as an independent 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 107 

branch of study naturally divides itself into three de- 
partments, namely, the use of words, the relation of 
words, and the philosophy of words ; and, if, instead of 
" words," we substitute " grammar " or u language," the 
analogy holds true also. Words are shadows of things, 
and all language instruction at first is to teach beginners 
how to use these shadows for the things themselves. 
Hence, practical grammar is that branch of the subject 
which enables the learner to use words correctly, and 
to judge somewhat of the thought expressed by the 
words employed. 

As he advances in his school work, the parent or 
teacher begins to give him more positive directions in 
regard to the use of certain words — " articles," for in- 
stance — coupled with an injunction that " you must" or 
" you must not." This is only preparing the way for 
the higher form of work in the second division, when 
rules and positive reasons will be required and ex- 
plained. 

It is entirely proper and in accordance with actual 
experience that certain definitions should be taught to 
children as they progress in their studies. A child 
should know how to define a "letter, syllable, word, 
spelling, sentence," etc., by the time he is through the 
Third or Fourth Eeader. 

Good definitions, known and understood, enable 
pupil or teacher to stand alone and battle for himself. 

Along with the kinds of sentences which the chil- 
dren early in school-life learn, the essential elements 
may be picked out, and even the parts of speech may 
be taught with some of their properties. Definitions 
should be generalized from examples. 



108 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. > 

In this connection, it is better to drop a suggestion 
in regard to " half-way definitions." Some years ago it 
was quite common to hear children speak of " telling 
sentences, asking sentences," etc. Of course, these de- 
scriptive terms are harmless, hot sooner or later they 
have to be dropped by the pupils. In place of wasting 
time in learning or using them, teach definitions that 
need not be changed. 

The sentence is the unit of thought, and it is with 
it that the philosophy of language begins. From the 
sentence the mind naturally passes to those elements 
or constituents composing the sentence, and then to the 
properties of these elements themselves. 

Whatever classification is adopted by the teacher as 
to the form and the use of the sentence, it is also de- 
sirable that the "parts of speech," including their prop- 
erties, relations, and uses, should be taught at the same 
time. 

Technical grammar is studied for the express pur- 
pose of helping the pupil to use the language correctly, 
and to know why he uses one form of expression rather 
than another. This study enables the pupil to tell what 
the law of the language is, and, in its higher forms, why 
it is. 

" Diagramming " a sentence is a method of symbol- 
izing the logical structure of the sentence, and helps to 
bring out in a forcible manner its meaning. A particu- 
lar diagram shows the meaning as Interpreted by him 
who makes the diagram. 

In the work of analysis, the following points should 
receive attention : 

1. The sentence as to its use. 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 109 

2. The sentence as to its form. 

3. The essential elements. 

4. The modifying elements. 

5. The connecting and independent elements, if any. 

6. The parts of speech, their properties, relations, 
and uses. 

7. The reasons for the same. 

8. Combine analysis, diagramming, and parsing. 

Correcting exercises in " false syntax "is an excel- 
lent drill. For advanced classes, a thorough drill in 
some good text-book on grammar is absolutely neces- 
sary to sound scholarship and a critical knowledge of 
the laws and usages of our language. The agreements 
and differences of all the parts of speech should be 
thoroughly discussed. 

THE THOUGHT ELEMENT. 

Dr. Gregory found that a farmer's little son, aged 
six years, in one week used more than six hundred dif- 
ferent words. 

In the acquisition of our native tongue four differ- 
ent ends are to be attained, hence there are four differ- 
ent arts : 

1. To hear and understand the spoken language. 

2. To speak it. 

3. To read and understand written or printed lan- 
guage. 

4. To write it so that others may understand what 
is written. 

The first two constitute spoken language ; the other 
two, written language. The first two are acquired nat- 
urally, but the latter must be learned. 



HO PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

By a wise provision of nature the infant is an atten- 
tive listener, and becomes an interpreter of gestures and 
sounds before it can exercise its power of speech, being 
prompted through curiosity to observe all around it. 
As it grows older, all progress in spoken language is 
due to practice and imitation. 

In the acquisition of a foreign language the pro- 
cess is somewhat different. 

The order is the following : 

1. The art of reading the language. 

2. The art of hearing it. 

3. The art of speaking it. 

4. The art of writing it. 

By the first two the words recall the ideas, and, in 
the second, the ideas recall the words. Lying at the 
foundation of all language culture are the trained eye, 
ear, lips, and hand : the eye to see, the ear to hear, the 
lips to speak, and the hand to write. 

Intellectual progress is possible by noting agreements 
and differences. All knowledge may be arranged, ac- 
cording to Bain, under the following heads: persons, 
places, things, actions, results of actions, states or situa- 
tions, and feelings. 

Ideas first, the words that represent the ideas after- 
ward, is Nature's method of teaching our mother-tongue. 
The sentence, which is a collection of words making a 
complete thought, is the unit of language. 

How to express thoughts by words, either spoken or 
written, is the problem that the teacher is called upon 
to face in the school-room. 

Every language-lesson should develop the thought- 
element by resolving the topic into its component parts, 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. m 

beginning at the first and presenting only one topic at 
a time, noting all its conditions and relations, and thor- 
oughly mastering them before proceeding to the next 
difficulty. Strike in one place to make a "welding 
heat," is a safe adage in teaching. 

The art of using language is acquired only by fre- 
quent and careful exercise. Attention to details is the 
condition to success. In every written exercise, on 
slate, blackboard, or paper, the following points are to 
be carefully noted by teacher and pupil : 

1. The subject matter. 2. Neatness and the orderly 
arrangement of the parts. 3. Language and grammati- 
cal construction of the sentences. 4, Punctuation, spell- 
ing, and capital letters. 5. Penmanship. 

To write or talk upon any given topic the writer 
must have some ideas in his mind that he can express in 
words, and consequently he must be familiar with some 
of the qualities or properties of what he proposes to de- 
scribe. Its agreements and differences he has already 
observed. These acts, as simple as they may appear, in- 
volve all the elements of thought. 

To set this in a still stronger light, suppose that a 
sentence is placed before the pupils for consideration. 
The sentence is a simple one : " The waves dashed 
high." What is in it ? Evidently two ideas, " waves " 
and " dashed." If we stop at " waves," how suggestive 
the word ! " Waves " — a thing classed under a form of 
knowledge ; a part of a body of water ; which is also a 
part of a larger body; which is a part of the great 
body, the ocean. Again, we may take another view of 
it and show its differences, which readily suggest them- 
selves. But, next, the pupil's attention is called to the 



112 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

word " dashed," and he sets out finding agreements 
and differences, and how rich the results. Not content 
with the mere statement as a grammatical collection of 
words to be analyzed and then passed by, he goes fur- 
ther, and connects the ideas in this sentence with other 
knowledge that he already possesses. As to the me- 
chanical execution, he looks out for capitals, punctua- 
tion, and penmanship. Further, he sees that the naked 
sentence contains two essential elements and two help- 
ing elements, and, by observation and induction, in due 
time he can formulate rules in regard to all the essential 
and helping elements in the English language. 

To stimulate and direct the will-power of the pupil, 
and excite him to do the most for himself, is the best 
kind of instruction. To make him conscious of his 
own ability, and capable of using it successfully, is the 
primary work of the teacher. The pupil works, puts 
forth the effort spontaneously ; the teacher seconds and 
directs his efforts. By degrees the learner, having confi- 
dence in himself, is prepared to study the language, not 
only in its relation to facts, but in its philosophy of 
facts. Thus, what is begun as an unconscious effort 
with the child, and acquired as a habit, may be devel- 
oped into one of the grandest arts — the art of beautiful 
and elegant speech. Tor nice discrimination and the 
finer shades of meaning — the adjusting of words to the 
sense — certainly the structure of our language admits no 
superior. 

To find the word implies the highest exercise of all 
the intellectual faculties, and in this respect language 
offers the whole range of science, art, and literature to 
select from. All languages then, for literary purposes, 



TEACHING COMPOSITION AND LANGUAGE. 113 

are living languages, and the only " dead language " is 
that " lifeless form " doled out to so many children in a 
parrot manner and labeled " grammar." 



Composition. 

1. Definition. 

2. Mental processes. 

1. Acquiring knowledge. 

2. Elaboration. 

3. Expression. 

3. Kinds. 

1. Oral. 

2. Written. 

1. Ordinary school. 

2. Higher forms. 

Language. 

1. Use of words. 

2. Relations of words. 

3. Philosophy of words. 

4. Suggestions. 

11 



CHAPTEE IX. 

TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 

" When lie did sit down, he tucked up his sleeves, squared his 
elbows, and put his face close to the copy-book, and squinted horri- 
bly at the lines." — Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop. 

It is not necessary to define writing ; all know what 
it is ; but, under this head of teaching penmanship, we 
must consider three things: First, what it includes; 
secondly, when to begin ; thirdly, how to teach it. 
We have been accustomed to consider writing only 
in its mechanical aspects : skill in imitation and per-, 
sistent practice were the only factors in producing a 
good penman. But the hand that does the work must 
be guided by the will, and before the will can exercise 
its function there must be in the mind a clear concep- 
tion, a distinct picture of that which is to be repro- 
duced. 

"Writing, as to its mechanical aspects, requires some 
preliminary conditions: First, position of the body, 
which should always be that least fatiguing to the per- 
son, and which gives perfect freedom to all the muscles 
of the arm and hand, and no part of its weight being 
permitted to rest upon the arm or table. The body 
should, therefore, be perfectly erect, whether sitting or 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 115 

standing at the desk, and the feet should rest squarely 
on the floor, particularly if sitting. Should you, reader, 
sit down to write, without placing your feet and limbs 
properly, you will discover that the body is at once 
thrown out of the erect position, and tends to follow 
feet and limbs into paths of crookedness. The head 
should be kept well up, not bowed as if in shame or 
grief, or seeking repose upon either shoulder. Resting 
securely upon its slender support — the neck — it can, by 
easy movements from side to side, save the eyes from 
strain as they follow the work in its progress on the 
page, always seeing every part of the line at the same 
angle, thus giving surer guidance to the hand, and se- 
curing a uniform slant to the letters. The arm should 
be at right angles to the lines across the page, and 
resting so lightly on the desk that it can move easily 
from side to side, carrying with it the hand that wields 
the pen. It is a notorious fact that very few pupils are 
found in any of the schools who take the proper posi- 
tion when they write. They seem so in love with the 
subject that they bend over to their work. It must be 
attractive, indeed, if the whole body must be distorted 
in the eagerness to " get down " to writing. Teachers 
should not fail to secure a strict observance of the re- 
quirements as to position, for upon this depends much of 
the success or failure in further instruction in penmanship. 
In most city schools it has been for years the custom 
for pupils up to the middle of the third year to write 
on paper with lead-pencils. Having given much thought 
to the subject, I am now firmly of the opinion that pu- 
pils should begin writing with pen and ink in the lowest 
grade. Better results are secured, and pupils are pleased 



116 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

with. it. The custom of doing so much writing with a 
lead-pencil is productive of careless habits, and conse- 
quently destructive of accurate and beautiful work with 
the pen in the hands of pupils, as the nice distinctions 
of curves and shading of which the pen is capable can 
not be made with a pencil. And then, again, pencil 
work is so easily soiled by handling as to make its use 
very objectionable in anything we may desire to pre- 
serve. Teachers object to the use of ink in the lowest 
grades because of inky fingers and spattered paper and, 
desks. As this objection may be made to the first use 
of ink by pupils, let the grade be what it may, it strikes 
me that the neat habits necessary to its successful use 
would better be taught at the beginning of the course 
of study, and perpetuated by careful attention till per- 
manently fixed, thus giving the teacher in the middle 
or upper grades less to do in habit forming, while the 
time can be more profitably spent in developing the 
thinking faculties. 

Having insisted upon an easy position of the body, 
we come now to consider that of the hand which holds 
the pen, and how it holds it. But position is now to be 
combined with movement, and, as the conditions are 
more complex, more time and greater patience may be 
needed. Little feet totter when first they start out to. 
tread life's pathway, and so little hands may not all at 
once come into or remain in a required position when 
in use. Do not discourage children by too rigid re- 
quirements at first. The pen-holding hobby is some- 
times ridden to death. If teachers would talk less about 
holding the pen, and confine the attention of pupils 
more closely to the forms of the letters and movements 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 117 

necessary in making them, they would succeed better and 
with less labor, while nerves of both teachers and pu- 
pils would be spared much useless tension. As chil- 
dren's feet step more firmly after the practice which 
gives confidence to the mind, so will little hands gain 
skill and strength in time, and as the mind of the child 
under instruction becomes familiar with the forms of 
the letters, and eager to imitate a perfect copy, his 
hands adapt themselves to the requirements, and the 
pen-holding comes to take care of itself. This does 
not mean that the teacher should neglect this, but that 
he should not be impatient, and should take the child's 
hand gently in his own, quietly and tenderly guid- 
ing till it knows the way. Suppose they do fail at 
first; they try; encourage them. Yery few teachers 
realize how weary grow the pupils' ears with the pen- 
holding din. A ball of yarn placed in the hand of a 
child with a challenge to see how long he can keep it 
there and yet scarcely touch it, has been found to aid 
materially in training the child's hand to take and re- 
tain the correct position. When a boy begins to use a 
knife — the joy of his early life, the companion of his 
riper years, and a precious memory when time has sil- 
vered his once dark locks and dimmed the lustrous eye 
— would you keep harping at him about holding it in a 
certain position % Boys and girls like to find out some 
things for themselves, and, in the matter of holding the 
pen, with very little guidance they will find out the 
best way. Persons who write a great deal tell us that 
they must frequently change the position of their 
hands, pens, and fingers, and that the position required 
by teachers is not always the best. 



118 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Here is a description of the method used by the 
Germans in teaching the position and movements of the 
hand and pen in forming the letters. When they be- 
gin lessons in writing, the letter to be imitated is first 
written so that the children can see it. Then the chil- 
dren describe the character, and imitate in air the move- 
ments used in making it. In this way they get a clear 
conception of its form and the necessary movements. 
Looking at it again, teacher and children together, at a 
given signal, describe it by movements in the air. This 
brings the muscles under control, so that the fingers are 
guided by the will. It is by working from that which 
is known and seen, connecting the movements with the 
mental picture, that the letter is easily and well made. 
This method gives practice in the full arm-movement, 
and control of all the muscles at the beginning, and 
the children soon learn to execute in a most rapid and 
beautiful manner. 

After the preliminary instruction as to position 
and movements are understood by a cliild, he is to 
begin the work on paper, and it is very important that 
this introduction should be presented to him in a ra- 
tional manner. I hold it to be true that writing is an 
intellectual rather than an imitative art, and that, as the 
sculptor has in his mind a definite conception of the 
form he expects to make from the block of marble, so 
must there be in the mind of the child a distinct picture 
of that which he is to produce on paper. Once made, 
he compares the production, the writing, with his men- 
tal picture, and criticises his own work. It is important 
that when a pupil looks at a letter he can tell whether 
it conforms to the model. Writing from this concep- 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 119 

tion is not acquired by " writing/' but from intelligent, 
critical practice. It is indeed possible for a child to 
practice so much that his writing shall grow worse and 
worse. 

The steps in forming a letter are as follows : First, 
the pupil looks at a letter till he gets a clear conception 
of it ; secondly, he tries to form the letter like the model 
placed before him ; thirdly, he compares his work with 
the model, and notes the agreements and differences. 

At first, the pupil should form the letters slowly, 
and always with care, writing more rapidly as he ac- 
quires skill in the use of the pen. The teacher should 
never allow him to acquire slovenly habits, but remem- 
ber that eternal vigilance is the price of final success. 
In this branch of school work the result of poor teach- 
ing is seen more quickly than in almost any other. 

The old plan of teaching writing was a very simple 
one, presenting the whole subject at once. The first 
lessons were in making straight lines and pot-hooks, and 
the only instruction regarding position was "Don't get 
your head too low " ; and pupils were expected to 
write all the letters from the first. JMow, the difficul- 
ties are mastered in detail. Requiring a pupil to write 
all the letters as his first exercise is like giving him the 
fifth reader on his first day at school. It is the foolish- 
ness of teaching ! 

The safer way is for the teacher to take one thing 
at a time. If there is no writing chart, the teacher, 
who should be able to write a good model, should place 
.upon the board, before the class, a copy of the letter 
which is to be the lesson for the day. It is not neces- 
sary that the copy should be beautiful, but it should 



120 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PEACTICALLY APPLIED. 

be perfect in form, and large in size. However, the 
teacher who can write beautifully can more easily 
interest children in the work, and get better results. 
Little folks have an eye for the beautiful, and will 
watch with eager interest while a teacher, skilled in the 
use of chalk or pen, leaves behind her moving hand 
well-formed and beautiful letters. They will improve 
even leisure moments in trying to " do likewise." "While 
the above is true, it is quite possible for a teacher who 
can not write beautifully to teach well. I know one 
teacher who is a poor penman, but whose teaching 
power is so great that, without exception, her pupils 
write very beautifully. Her skill in getting pupils to 
do their own work so well is exceptional, but it shows 
that writing is not simply an imitative art, and that a 
teacher can, if she will, teach her pupils to do better 
work than she herself can do. 

To those who maintain that writing is simply an 
imitative art, it may be asked, In what sense is it imi- 
tative % Can a human being imitate with his hand that 
which he can not perceive with some one of the senses, 
or of which he can not get a conception and form a 
mental picture % Does not the will, with action based 
upon this knowledge, direct the muscles % Does the 
hand act involuntarily when it imitates a form, a letter, 
a motion % 

Again, if the attention of a writer is diverted for a 
moment, the hand goes astray, and the letter is a fail- 
ure. Let any one try the experiment of giving atten- 
tion to something else for a moment or two, and note 
the effect upon his writing. He could not claim that 
writing is not an expression of thought, or that it is pos- 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 121 

sible to do two things well at the same time. As a fur- 
ther illustration of the importance of thinking about or 
teaching one thing at a time, let a beginner make the 

letter Jc > an( i examine it. Can anything about it be 
pronounced perfect ? No. "What is the trouble % Too 
much has been undertaken at one time. He has not 
thought how each part should be made so that the whole 
letter may be correct. The first or upward stroke is 
not on the right slant ; the second or downward stroke 
is a curved instead of a straight line, resulting in a 
poor, " bow-backed " affair. He had two ideas in his 
mind — one to reach the base line and the other to make 
the turn — when he made that downward stroke. The 
upward stroke was very nearly on the right slant, and 
he was all right on the downward stroke till a certain 
point was reached, and then all was wrong. The diffi- 
culty was mental. He thought of coming down and 
making the turn at the -same time, and expressed the 
double idea that was in his mind ; the idea not being 
clearly a unit, the expression was not clear, and there- 
fore the letter is a failure, thus giving proof that it is 
very important to undertake but one thing at a time. 

Suppose that a teacher gives to the child a whole 
letter. It is too much. Keep in mind the fact that a 
letter is made up of parts. The child can not make 
the whole letter correctly before he knows how to make 
each part composing it, or has at least in his mind a dis- 
tinct picture of each part, and knows the order in which 
the parts occur. He must practice on that upward 
stroke till he knows it perfectly, then on the downward 
stroke, and finally on the finishing stroke. With a per- 
fect conception of each part, and a knowledge of the 



122 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

movements by which they are made and united, he can, 
at will, make the whole letter. In this way the entire 
alphabet can soon be taught, taking one letter at a time. 
When a child is once thoroughly familiar with every 
letter in the alphabet, in its simple and its capital form, 
he can write words and sentences. Then, by practice, 
he becomes more and more perfect in the execution 
till he can write legibly, and perhaps beautifully. 

It has long been a current theory that the best way 
to learn writing is to use a book with a printed copy, 
and keep the pupil imitating that copy. That is the 
way to learn not to write. The correct way to learn to 
write is to get a mental picture of each letter, a picture 
so perfect that it can be reproduced in the mind at any 
time. This form in the mind is an idea, and the writ- 
ten letter is the expression of this idea. 

To recapitulate. The steps in making a letter are 
these : First, get a perfect mental picture ; secondly, re- 
produce this mental picture ; thirdly, execute, or make 
the letter. It is just as it is with an inventor : he has 
first in his mind the invention which he expects to 
give to the world ; he invents it first, then expresses it 
in material form, visible to the eye. 

The letter having been made, it is criticised by com- 
parison with the model which is in the mind — the men- 
tal picture ; or it may be criticised by comparison with 
a visible, material standard. 

Penmanship is a science based on educational prin- 
ciples — principles just as fixed as are those of arith- 
metic — and the person who will study systematically till 
he forms in his mind a correct picture of every letter, 
and work to reproduce it, will learn to write well. 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 123 

There is a method of tracing which is a process of 
mechanical imitation. There are copy-books that have 
thin leaves in them, and the child follows the form of 
the letter with the tissue-paper between the letter and 
the pencil. One objection, at least, may be made to this 
method. It takes up too much at once, and is not in 
accordance with the best of all educational maxims : 
" One thing at a time, and that done well, 
Is a very good rule, as many can tell." 

There is one advantage in this method : the atten- 
tion is easily concentrated by the device, and the hand 
becomes skillful in following the shading of the letters ; 
but it seems to me that the same result can be best 
secured by training the pupil in the way already indi- 
cated, so that by a mental process he becomes capable, 
not only of doing good work, but of intelligently criti- 
cising his own work and the work of others. 

Suppose, now, that a teacher wishes to train a class 
in penmanship — first, as a science, then in securing me- 
chanical execution. The teacher takes a writing-book, 
and each pupil one similar to it. There is a perfect 
printed copy, and this copy a new letter — a letter they 
have not studied. At this new letter each one looks 
very carefully. The teacher questions in regard to the 
form of that letter, the parts composing it, the different 
proportions. They learn how to measure the letter, 
how to analyze it, how to compare their own efforts 
with the copy, and how to test the accuracy of their 
work. They can see their own mistakes, and describe 
in language the proper form of the letter. The whole 
class is sent to the board to write the letter " a," and 
" a " is written. Then they criticise, each his own 



124 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

work, and afterward each criticises the work of his 
classmates, telling in what the failures consist. In this 
way they are taught to criticise, and to express their 
criticisms in words. I am aware of the fact that in 
this detail work we must pass over many things. But 
it is systematic work. In writing, let each one do his 
best; let there be no careless work. Carelessness in 
writing must not be tolerated by the teacher, and all 
the written work connected with other lessous should be 
as carefully done as that of the special writing-lessons. 

The objection with which we are met that system 
in writing destroys individuality is not valid. As well 
might we say that system in spelling, or in any other 
subject requiring the exercise of the thinking faculties, 
destroys individuality ; and, since correct writing is the 
expression of distinct thought, and systematic thinking 
develops the individual mentally, we can not admit that 
a system of penmanship closely followed destroys indi- 
viduality. 

THE THOUGHT ELEMENT. 

Penmanship is regarded by most persons as a kind 
of imitative art, consisting of ninety-nine per cent of 
practice, and perhaps one per cent of theory. The 
prevalence of this idea is the chief cause of so much 
illegible hand- writing among the educated classes, and 
in all seriousness some very intelligent instructors do 
not pretend that it should be taught in a systematic and 
logical manner. 

Through the aid of writing-charts and copy-books 
the pupils of all schools may have excellent models for 
their guidance, provided the teacher has skill and tact 
in teaching the subject. 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 125 

The best results I have ever seen in penmanship 
were achieved by two teachers whose hand-writing was 
very poor indeed ; yet they tanght all their pupils, with- 
out exception, to write legibly and beautifully. Their 
success depended upon their thorough knowledge of 
methods. 

The true method of teaching penmanship is, that 
the correct form of the letter shall be studied till it is 
fixed as a reality in the mind, and then analyzed into its 
constituent elements, and each element practiced sepa- 
rately ; and finally, by an act of synthesis, these parts 
united into one whole, or the letter. By this process a 
correct idea of the letter as a whole is obtained. 

Following this is the next step, which is both men- 
tal and mechanical — mechanical in that the pupil at- 
tempts to put on the paper a faithful transcript of the 
form in the mind, or that he gives objective expression 
to his mental conception. But, should the intellectual 
act of the mind stop here, little progress is made, and 
penmanship degenerates into a dull, insipid drill. After 
the pupil makes an attempt to form a letter, he should 
know how to criticise his own work correctly. Hence, 
ability to criticise his own productions, using a cor- 
rect ideal for a test, is the key to success in penman 
ship. 

The following illustration will enforce this idea : 

An ingenious writing-teacher has shown that, in 

the formation of the capital (0f twenty-four different 
things are to be observed : 

First, left curve ; secondly, straight line ; thirdly, 
right curve ; fourthly, oval turn ; fifthly, left curve ; 
sixthly, oval turn ; seventhly, right curve ; eighthly, 
12 



126 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

loop ; ninthly, right curve ; tentkly, oval turn ; elev- 
enthly, left curve. 

Measurement, 

First, height of first stroke ; secondly, width from 
same to left side ; thirdly, full height ; fourthly, top to 
junction with the first ; fifthly, top to loop ; sixthly, 
from first to second down strokes ; seventhly, base line 
to last oval turn ; eighthly, width of last oval turn ; 
ninthly, from last stroke to loop. 

Criticism of this Letter, 

First, slant ; secondly, angle of loop ; thirdly, shad- 
ing ; fourthly, criticise the twenty points mentioned in 
the formation and measurements. 

The same method of analysis holds of all the other 
letters — small and capitals. 

The details of position — pen-holding, movement of 
the muscles — are a matter of practice ; but the thought- 
element comes from first getting a correct picture or 
photograph of the letter in the mind long enough to 
put it down on paper. By means of this mental picture 
the pupil is his own critic, and in case of doubt he can ap- 
peal to the standard on the chart or to the writing-book. 

Hence, penmanship as a science first appeals to 
thought, and secondly to the expression of thought, and 
in all cases the principles of this science should be 
taught from the very first day that the child enters 
school till he quits. 

The following directions will assist the earnest 
teacher in doing this work well : 

1. That both feet rest firmly on the floor. 

2. That the left hand rest firmly on the paper. 



TEACHING PENMANSHIP. 127 

3. That the pen he held loosely in the right hand. 

4. That the right arm and right hand he perfectly 
free in their movements. 

5. That the nose, top of the pen-holder, and pen- 
point are in the same straight line with the main slant 
in the copy-hook. 

6. That the pupils he taught to criticise the size, 
slant, and space of each letter. 

The foregoing reflections and suggestions indicate 
in general the central thought that the branches should 
be taught so as to cultivate the "thinking faculties." 
Every branch may be so taught, but the branch is noth- 
ing in itself, the teacher is everything. " Who is the 
teacher ? " is the important question. 

"Writing. 

I. What it includes. 

1. Mechanical execution. 

(a) Position, and (b) Movements. 

Body. Head. Hand. 

Feet. Arm. Pen. 

2. Intellectual. 

a. Mental pictures. e. Synthesis. 

b. Reproduction. /. Criticism. 

6. Expression. g. Comparison. 

d. Analysis. 

II. When to begin. 

a. With pen. 

b. With ink. 

In lowest grades. 

III. How to teach. 

a. Show perfect model. e. Criticism. 

b. Get mental picture. /. One thing at a time. 

c. Reproduction. g. Thoroughly. 

d. Execution. h. Summary, 



CHAPTER X. 

TEACHING GEOGEAPHY. 

Simon Tappeetit, one of Mr. Dickens's characters, 
prided himself npon his ability " to eye things over." 
Primary geography is, pre-eminently, a study to be 
"eyed over," whether in natnre or in a book. The 
words in the book tell about geography, while the real 
objects show what geography is. 

Before the child is old enough to attend school, he 
has picked up considerable information on geography, 
but it is not assorted. By all means he should get his 
knowledge at first hand and from the best sources. 
The flowing river, the babbling brook, the pond in the 
meadow, the miniature island in the lake, the names of 
trees, birds, and flowers, are seen and learned by taking 
an afternoon stroll. What can be more enjoyable to 
little hearts than such a ramble ? Pleasure and science 
both combined ! How often such a lesson will reveal 
to the teacher dormant tendencies in children's char- 
acters that she never suspected of existing ! Wherever 
there is a school-house, some objects of interest can al- 
ways be found to illustrate many technical definitions in 
geography, if the teacher knows how to look for them 



TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 129 

and how to use them. As all knowledge is related to 
something that precedes it, and also to something that 
follows it, to carry out the law of harmony that subsists 
between what the child knows and what he does not 
know, he must begin with what he knows as so much 
capital stock and add each new acquisition to it. Should 
he commence with the unknown, the very remote, or 
obscure, and go to that which is still more obscure, bank- 
ruptcy is the inevitable result. 

As soon as the child has become familiar with the 
real objects at home, those on the way to school, 
and those at the school-house, he is prepared to begin 
the process of representation, by making drawings or 
pictures, of the objects he has seen. This step is also 
accompanied with either an oral or written description 
of the object, thus uniting language instruction with 
geographical information. The latter process helps to 
fix the information in the mind. 

At this stage in the learner's progress, many of his 
ideas are immature and need to be corrected by experi- 
ence. Only in rare instances has he clear notions of 
distance, height, weight, size, and measure. Experience 
only can give this knowledge. Eventually, after re- 
peated failures and mistakes, he is enabled to judge 
with a tolerable degree of accuracy. All progress 
comes through mistakes and corrections. 

To draw a rude map of the school-house and sur- 
rounding objects is the first step on the way toward 
a definite conception of latitude and longitude, and 
the determination of a point on the earth's surface. 
The pupil must learn that location on a surface can not 
be fixed exactly except by the intersection of two lines 



130 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

crossing at right angles. It is not sufficient to fix the 
latitude — the longitude also must be ascertained. 

"When the child is sufficiently advanced to begin the 
primary geography as a text-book, the lessons should be 
read first in the class, the teacher questioning every pupil 
as to the meaning of each topic. Judicious questioning 
should bring to the surface what the pupils think the 
meaning is, rather than the teacher's views. The skillful 
teacher draws out adroitly the pupils' information, and 
corrects mistakes afterward. By the time the pupil 
begins the primary text-book, he ought to be able to 
multiply and divide numbers, and consequently to esti- 
mate distances on the maps, and to convert by the 
" scale of miles " map-measurements into statute miles. 

The sand and molding-board hobbies are base de- 
ceptions that can not be employed by persons " who 
have a very sacred regard for truth." Any ordinary 
molding-board product must of necessity be so over- 
done as to convey the grossest exaggeration, a thing 
certainly to be avoided in teaching children conceptions of 
real things. Not long since the writer had occasion to 
examine one of the molded maps of the United States. 

Comparing the depression of the Mississippi River 
with the elevation of the Appalachian Mountains on 
the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west, the 
channel of the river was about five hundred miles below 
the two mountain systems. Certainly the teacher is 
intrepid who would teach children relations between 
natural objects so far from the truth. 

In primary geography, the book should be used 
chiefly as a reader, and not as a work to be committed 
to memory and to be recited verbatim. 



TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 131 

As far as possible the pupils should illustrate the 
meaning of each paragraph from their own experience. 
After the lesson is read and understood, the pupils may 
close their books and answer the questions connected 
directly or remotely with the subjects mentioned in the 
lesson. 

The intelligent teacher will not take the words that 
the pupil uses for a complete expression of the thought 
he has in his mind. At this stage of the learner's 
progress, he is busy in trying to get ideas out of the 
books he reads, and particularly so when the book he 
reads is geography. In this study, as in most others, 
the pupil must depend largely upon faith. He is 
obliged to take for granted what others say. His eyes 
can take in only a very limited portion of the earth's 
surface. Hence a few definitions, a little observation 
of his own, and a large mass of information gained from 
the records and observations of others, will constitute 
his geographical information, even should he make great 
progress in this interesting branch of science. 

Advanced Geography. 
Leaving what is called primary geography, the 
pupil is prepared to take up, under the title of " Ad- 
vanced Geography," some of the most interesting topics 
of study connected with our earth, such as its position, 
shape, size, density, physical features, etc., as compared 
with other bodies in the same system. Ritter tells us 
how the three great natural kingdoms, mineral, vegeta- 
ble, and animal, though each having an independent 
form,®are related in a three-fold way to the earth's sur- 
face and to human history. 



132 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Viewed in this light, geography becomes an intensely 
interesting study, as leading all the way from nature's 
lowest forms to God, whose breath gave spirit to his 
image — man. 

The whole surface of the globe is condensed into 
an epitome on a mountain side ; yet we hardly realize 
it. All the changes that a few miles of travel from the 
level of the ocean to the top of the mountain can give 
are such as a person would experience in traveling for 
weeks or months from the burning regions of the tor- 
rid zone to the perpetual cold of the frigid. 

In the study of geography we are brought face to 
face with those grand manifestations of physical nature 
which fill our hearts with awe and reverence. Here it 
is that the thoughtful student catches glimpses of those 
mysterious currents of air that circle the earth from 
pole to pole, and those still more majestic rivers in the 
ocean, whose banks never overflow ; and yet these 
themes, so captivating, receive little or no attention in 
most schools, while memorizing names of unimportant 
objects occupies nearly all the learner's time. It is true 
that local geography, or geography of place, may be 
learned by committing detached names, provided the 
learner is favored with a retentive memory ; but it is a 
more rational method for the learner, when reading his- 
tory or the newspaper, and finding references to locali- 
ties on the earth's surface, to provide himself with a 
map for reference, so that he can locate those places 
about which he reads. Suppose it be the " Retreat of 
the Ten Thousand " : with the map spread open before 
him, the reader traces out the marches and counter- 
marches of Xenophon and his heroes. He learns to 



TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 133 

know the people and the general characteristics of the 
country which they traversed. 

To understand Napoleon's campaigns, his retreat 
from Moscow for instance, what can make a more vivid 
impression upon the mind of the reader than to follow 
day by day that famishing army through the snows of 
a Russian winter ? To appreciate the perils experienced 
in the Arctic regions, take the map, and as you read 
follow the weary footsteps of the explorers. To know 
even the history of our own country during the dark 
and gloomy period of the Revolution, the paths of the 
contending forces must be followed from day to day. 

Let the learner begin with a blank map, which con- 
tains the parallels and meridians and the coast-lines. As 
he reads, he locates places, rivers, mountains, etc., and, 
by the time he is through the book or subject, he will 
have acquired a good geographical knowledge of the 
country. The map grows daily under his own eye and 
hand. He literally knows it, for he has made it. 

Thus time and place are both associated, and Geog- 
raphy and History join hands not to be divorced. They 
are dependent upon each other. In their union the 
seeker after truth is led out of the mechanical details of 
the subject and endows it with a higher life. The dry 
bones rattle no more, and, instead of a task for dull 
minds, there is a theme of fascinating interest and sur- 
prising beauties. 

Geography is the science that opens the gateway to 
the other great departments of organic and inorganic 
nature. On the one hand is spread out in the grandest 
profusion the whole vegetable kingdom, with its myriad 
forms, whether growing on the earth or in the sea ; one 



134 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION" PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

step more, and the rocky leaves of the book of nature 
are turned, and the history of the animal kingdom is 
read in the silent but emphatic language of the past, 
telling of the eras before man, the highest type. The 
earth was made for man, and geography tells us the story 
of its preparation. Shall we not cease to teach geogra- 
phy, then, as a collection of isolated facts % Let us unite 
these facts into one grand truth. Then we shall rise 
above the level of lifeless form into the region of the 
spiritual — from the created to the Creator. 

It is interesting to study about the plants and ani- 
mals which vary with the altitude as with the latitude. 
Geography leads us into the great field of botany, and 
from that to the animal kingdom, with its extinct species 
imbedded in the bosom of the earth, telling us of its 
changes before even man, who came last and highest, 
began his dominion over all the earth. 

More important still are the social and intellectual 
conditions of men, and those peculiarities which distin- 
guish one nationality from another. Historians for a 
long time wrote of the rulers, and but little was said 
about the people. ]STow, men are studying into the 
social and intellectual conditions of the people them- 
selves ; they wish to know why some nations have risen 
to the plane they now occupy; why all this culture; 
why the schools, the press, the railroad, the steam-engine, 
and everything that tends to make man better, happier, 
wiser. These questions are springing up in the minds 
of thinking men and women everywhere ; and I know 
of no class of persons more capable of investigating 
these subjects than teachers. They should be well 
versed in social science, in political economy, and in 



TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 135 

all kindred topics. ]STot only should they be able to 
answer tlie questions children ask, but they should be 
able to answer the questions of the age. 

Mighty issues are coming forward for solution in all 
civilized countries. The intelligent teachers will help 
in the work of conducting the nations safely through 
these stormy periods. Knowing clearly the natural and 
acquired rights of the citizen as a member of the state, 
they will prepare the school children to assert their 
personal rights and to perform their duty to the state. 
A clear understanding of social and political duties, and 
of the complex relations between the various industries 
and occupations, all teachers should possess. No longer 
can the teacher be a mere " school-master." He must 
be a citizen of the world, and he must stand and feel 
where its great heart beats the strongest. 

Eeligions, beliefs that men have, have always at- 
tracted more attention than anything else. They are 
beliefs in the unseen, and all have them. Comparing 
these beliefs, we leam to be tolerant. All truth is not 
with us. Truth is many sided, and different persons 
look at it from different points, no two seeing it alike, 
though one person may be just as conscientious as 
another person. 

Hence it is that the geography of nature leads us to 
the geography of man, and opens up to us the grandest 
themes which can be presented to the human mind for 
contemplation. All the earth was made for man, and 
there is not one interest of his, from the lowest animal 
want to the highest spiritual longing, that is not pro- 
vided for; and geography tells us the story of that pro- 
vision. 



136 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 



NATURAL SCIENCE. 

Reaction is strong against the usual methods of 
teaching natural science in all grades of schools and col- 
leges, and to-day the question is, Shall we use the syn- 
thetic or the analytic method, or combine them, in 
teaching science ? 

Common sense answers by saying, " Use both." The 
beginnings of the natural sciences are founded upon the 
observation of facts which, with their phenomena, are 
arranged, classified, reduced to systems according to the 
laws which produced them. To account for the present 
existence of things and phenomena is the province of 
the natural sciences. 

God's will is the natural law, and man is the inter- 
preter, and the correct interpretation depends upon 
man's ability to read the volume of nature as it is writ- 
ten. This brings us to the question of how to study 
and how to interpret nature. 

Formerly, nature was studied too much in the closet ; 
the whole system of the universe was elaborated from 
lamp-smoke and bad air. But it is the present convic- 
tion that, to get definite knowledge, objects themselves 
must be examined, and the knowledge had at first hand. 

Before the child goes to school, considerable scien- 
tific knowledge has been acquired, not only of the land 
and water, but of animals, vegetables, and in some in- 
stances of minerals. This knowledge, it is true, is in 
fragments, but the teacher can assist the child in group- 
ing it into classes. 

Undoubtedly the child should begin the study of all 
the natural sciences in the objective form first ; and 



TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 137 

not from definitions in books, or from pictures, or 
maps. The true order is the object, the word next, or 
the expression of the idea represented or aroused by the 
object ; and lastly, the picture or representation of the 
object. To begin with definitions is to put the general 
notion before the individual idea — a reversal of nature's 
method and of the experience of the race. 

To illustrate the above : G-eography, a subject stud- 
ied in all our common schools, is most frequently taught 
from verbal definitions and map-drawing. But before 
the pupil goes to school he possesses quite a fund of 
detached information on this subject, and he should 
begin with what he knows, and proceed from the 
known to the unknown. 

Again, the true idea of the map having been taught, 
the pupil should find out how to measure distances, 
using the " scale of miles " and ruler for this purpose. 
Other relations will also be ascertained which will greatly 
aid the pupil in getting a proper estimate of distance 
and direction. Immediately following this is attention 
to parallels and meridians. To appreciate this means 
of fixing location, it should be borne in mind that all 
points on planes are located by the intersection of two 
lines, and that distances are measured from their inter- 
section. This simple idea is the central thought in all 
astronomical and terrestrial computations pertaining to 
distances and areas, and is the natural key to map- 
drawing. 

Early in the study of geography the pupil should be 

encouraged to classify his knowledge and to systematize 

it. Too often it is learned and recited in "broken 

doses." For instance, any particular country when 

13- 



138 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

studied by advanced pupils may "be outlined under the 
following divisions : 1. Position. 2. Physical features. 
3. Natural productions. 4. The inhabitants. 5. Their 
improvements. 6. Their institutions. 7. Differences 
from other countries as well as similarities. These topics 
should be expanded by the pupil and the subdivisions 
filled. 

Rising still higher is the department of physical 
geography, which is the philosophy of our earth and all 
that pertains to it. 

In its relations to other bodies it is a planet, com- 
posed of land and water, surrounded by an atmosphere. 
In its history it reveals the past through its dead forms, 
and its present life by its living ones. Not only facts, 
but the philosophy of facts, tempt us into one of the 
most inviting fields of nature. 

Pouring knowledge into passive minds is erroneous 
teaching. Gathering knowledge by the mind itself is 
true instruction. Teachers should only stimulate the 
pupil to independent work. Let it be remembered that 
none of the natural sciences are to be studied from 
books alone. Books are only helps — not masters — and 
teachers and pupils should not be slaves to them. From 
direct contact with facts, the pupil must draw his con- 
clusions by memorizing less and thinking more. "With 
each pupil two objects are sought to be accomplished, 
namely, habits of mind, and methods of thinking. 



TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 



139 



Geography. 
Primary. 

1. Home. 

2. School-house. 

3. Village, town, etc. 

4. County. 

5. State. 

6. Nation. 

7. Continent. 
Advanced. 

Nature — Earth. 

1. Position. 

2. Shape. 

3. Size. 

4. Eelief. 
Man. 

1. Kaces. 

Primary. 

2. Organizations, 

Social. 

3. Governments. 

4. Industries. 



1. Situation. 

2. Boundary. 

3. Sketch; Map. 

4. Surface. 

5. Climate. 

6. "Waters. 

7. People. 



5. Climate. 

6. Vegetation. 

7. Animals. 



Secondary. 



Civil. 



Eeligious. 



CHAPTER XI. 

TEACHING HISTORY. 

Four questions present themselves upon the thresh- 
old of this subject : 

I. Why Teach History ? 
II. When Teach It f 
III. How Teach It f 
TV. What Effect should he Produced f 
These topics will be discussed in the order they are 
numbered. 

I. Why Teach History? 

As soon as the child begins to reflect upon his own 
existence and surroundings, he connects himself in 
some way with those about him. He hears his parents 
speak of relatives and friends, and he is aroused to the 
fact that he is related to his parents' relatives. Their 
friends and acquaintances also are not so far removed 
from him as entire strangers. Gradually his field of 
experience enlarges, and he begins to trace backward, by 
questioning, the history of individuals and other ob- 
jects. This desire to find out the origin of things is 
instinctive with the race, and is, when exercised in the 
direction of history, only one of the many indications of 
the normal action of the mind. 



TEACHING HISTORY. 141 

All knowledge is first individual experience. Each 
individual is therefore constantly enlarging his circle of 
knowledge by his own observation and the testimony of 
others. It is certainly natural for the child to be in- 
quisitive in regard to those things that concern himself 
and those with whom he is acquainted. 

In this sense, then, the child commences the study 
of history— that is, personal history — long before he en- 
ters the school-room. Even here he still continues the 
process of gathering facts and arranging them, often- 
times crudely enough, into a dim historical whole. 
"With this indistinct outline, the child enters school. 
His surroundings are different from those of home. He 
is thrown into a busy, organized community of which 
he is a member. Eight and justice stand side by side 
with him now. Certain things he must do and others 
he must avoid. Adjusting himself to his new surround- 
ings, the idea of obedience to authority, because it is 
commanded, is forcibly inculcated. Back of the school 
authority he learns soon to discern other powers mani- 
fested in the presence of civil officers. Thus is he in- 
troduced to the state, and made to feel that he, too, is in 
some sense an object of interest to this higher power. 

But in this country, where the ballot of one individ- 
ual may elect the chief magistrate to the highest office 
known to our laws, the history of the country is an es- 
sential branch of a common-school education. Intelli- 
gent citizenship is the primary object of studying his- 
tory in the common schools. This demand is a require- 
ment of the age. It is imperative and must be obeyed. 
Our civil, political, military, religious, and social institu- 
tions are different from those of all other civilized na- 



142 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

tions of the globe. The idea that our career has thus 
far reached in history is : that of universal education 
and absolute equality of all citizens before the law. 

The plea that I now make is : that all our children 
should become more thoroughly imbued with the spirit 
and genius of our institutions ; that our national history, 
with all its struggles for freedom, is as much of an in- 
heritance for the child whose eyes first opened on the 
other side of the Atlantic as it is for the one born in 
our own native land. In no other way can we counter- 
act those wild and vague notions so foreign to our insti- 
tutions and so detrimental to our peace and prosperity. 

It has been truthfully said that the permanency of 
our government depends upon the intelligence, the vir- 
tue, the wisdom, and the patriotism of our citizens. 
Patriotism is innate in the human breast, but parents 
and teachers should direct it aright. 

The little boy of to-day is the voter of to-morrow. 
With these obligations resting upon him, he should come 
to the ballot with a clear understanding of what it means 
and what it represents. Back of the ballot should be 
seen freedom, purity, and patriotism ; one country, one 
hope, one destiny — and that universal progress. Burn 
it into the hearts of our children that the destiny of 
America is the destiny of humanity ! 

II. When Teach It? 

Under this division, the following subdivisions nat- 
urally arise : 

1. Facts. 2. The relation of facts. 3. The phi- 
losophy of facts. 

These subdivisions correspond somewhat to the 



TEACHING HISTORY. 143 

order in which the human mind is developed. If this 
classification is founded upon a correct interpretation of 
mental development, then the teacher's work is greatly 
simplified, and the question relates to the predominating 
stage of mental activity, and the kind of knowledge 
appropriate to that stage. At this point no mistake 
should be made. Two topics here must be considered, 
the order of development, and what kind of knowledge 
is required to produce the necessary result; or, more 
specifically, what kind of history is appropriate at any 
stage of the learner's progress ? 

1. The history of our own country is of first impor- 
tance to the American boy or girl. Let us suppose a 
class of pupils able to read fairly well in the Third 
Reader. "What should such a class read? I reply: 
Some good work containing stories of American history. 
£To school-boy can read such a work without kindling 
his patriotism over the story of the trials, the struggles, 
and the self-sacrificing devotion of our forefathers to 
those principles of freedom for which they risked their 
lives and fortunes. Such stories, if told in simple yet 
touching language, go home to the heart. The child 
can not read them unmoved. 

2. Coming one step higher, we meet the admirable 
primary histories issued by our enterprising publishers. 
While they treat chiefly of facts, yet the relation of 
facts is brought somewhat into view. 

These books are intended for Third and Fourth 
Reader pupils, and should be used as supplementary 
readers. It should be remembered that a majority of 
school-children never go beyond the Fourth Reader, and 
they ought to get some knowledge at least of our na- 



144: PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

tional history before leaving school A taste formed for 
historical reading thus early in life will grow and 
strengthen with the years as they glide by. 

Perhaps the most important event in the little child's 
life is the reading of his first hook, not his school-reader, 
but some volume that he takes up and reads through 
and through. How he goes back and pores over again 
and again the most interesting pages and makes them 
his own, how he returns to them in after years, and 
how unaccountably he lingers there and drinks from 
the fountain that quickened and slaked his thirst in the 
bright sunshine of his youth ! It is true that the first 
book may not have been one of great merit, yet on the 
clean, unscratched tablet of the memory it stamped im- 
pressions deep and lasting. They were the first, and 
they are always fresh and living. Where is the Ameri- 
can boy that read in early life "Weems's " Life of Mari- 
on " without receiving such an impression ? It paints a 
character pure and lofty, and moved always by the 
noblest impulses of a dignified and generous nature. 

The life lessons there so strikingly portrayed are 
such as every boy should learn. But this is only one 
book among many that may be placed in the hands of 
children helpful in the formation of character. 

3. At this stage the pupil is able to take a higher view 
of men in action. Time and place are accidents in the 
unfolding of irresistible forces, which man may partially 
direct, but is unable to control. Before his mind a 
moving panorama is placed, and nations come and go on 
the waves of time. The birth, the growth, maturity, 
decline, and decay, are written of those that once were, 
but now are not. He studies each for a predominating 



TEACHING HISTORY. 145 

idea — the national characteristic. This central thought 
embodies the philosophy of the nation's existence. It is 
compared with the central ideas of other nations, and 
the agreements and differences are noted. 

To the student of history, be he statesman, philoso- 
pher, or teacher, the philosophy of history is one of the 
grandest themes. It goes to the most exalted heights 
and descends to the lowest depths. In verity it is the 
bond that unites many factors into one complex whole. 

III. How Teach It? 

The fact that history is so unpopular is owing to 
the manner in which it is taught. All the soul is taken 
out of it. A few disjointed, ill-shapen facts are strung 
together and called " history," and repeating these ver- 
batim is called a " history recitation." 

There are two principal avenues to the mind — the 
eye and the ear ; and, in teaching, both are to be em- 
ployed. History, then, must be presented objectively 
to the eye : its leading facts grouped and spread before 
the eye of the pupil, on chart, paper, or blackboard, 
and dwelt upon till they become a part of the mind's 
furniture. Through the eye the understanding is 
reached most effectively, and, besides, the habit of 
classification, one of the chief benefits derived from the 
pursuit of any branch, is stimulated to a healthy activity 
in the arrangement of facts, their causes and sequences. 
To facilitate the teaching of history, charts have been 
prepared, showing at a glance the leading events of any 
period and their locality. The nations are represented 
by different colors, so as to trace their history with less 
difficulty. By referring to the chart, a moment only is 



146 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

necessary to determine whether at a certain date a na- 
tion was progressing or receding in political importance. 

The lesson assigned must be definite in extent, com- 
mencing at a certain paragraph and closing with as much 
precision, and with additional instruction to aid the class 
to find out whatever is available from other sources on 
the subject. This is beneficial in stimulating to new 
fields of thought. The lesson being prepared, the class 
is called by signals to the board. For convenience, the 
class may be divided into three or more sections, and 
numbered as sections 1, 2, 3, etc. Section 1 may draw 
a map of the country and indicate the localities men- 
tioned in the lesson ; section 2 may write exhaustive 
analyses of the lesson on the board ; members of section 
3 may prepare condensed reviews of previous lessons. 
Besides the work mentioned, a large blank map can be 
used to great advantage in this manner : Draw a simple 
outline map of the country, and, as the class advances, 
one or two members can fill in the details day by day. 
The map grows with the progress of the class. Colored 
crayon is recommended in drawing this map. Two fifths 
of the recitation can be devoted profitably to this written 
work, and the work should so alternate that no pupil does 
the same kind of written work during two successive 
recitations. Every member of the class must work, and 
it is the teacher's duty to see that this requirement is 
strictly complied with. 

During the remaining portion of the recitation, the 
work should be oral. Undivided attention is the first 
condition of a good recitation. Each member of the 
class should be held personally responsible to commence 
or to continue a topic whenever called upon by the 



TEACHING HISTORY. 147 

teacher. Pupils are to use their own language, express 
their thoughts in pleasant and agreeable tones of voice, 
and speak the language correctly. Boys frequently say 
what they do not intend, and stammer and hesitate for 
words. To remedy this defect, they should be per- 
mitted to try till they tell all there is to be said. The 
common practice of excusing from further recitation as 
soon as a mistake is made can not be too severely cen- 
sured. Here, two extremes are to be avoided : the first, 
too much talk on the part of the teacher; the second, 
permitting a few good pupils to do the reciting for the 
class. A proper distribution of work is indispensable 
in the school-room. Corrections in spelling, capitals, 
punctuation, pronunciation, language, and the material 
facts of the lesson, ought to be made by the class. A 
healthy spirit of criticism is a powerful incentive to 
correct scholarship and accuracy in every respect. 

With respect to grouping important events in gen- 
eral history, a few words may not be devoid of interest. 

As an example, the sixteenth century is chosen. It 
is pre-eminently a century of storms — political, ecclesi- 
astical, and intellectual. They burst in tornado violence 
on the nations of Europe, uprooting and overturning 
old institutions. 

France, England, Spain and Germany stood con- 
fronting one another. Early in the century, three young 
monarchs had ascended the thrones : Francis I, of 
France, Henry YIII, of England, and Charles V, King 
of Spain and Emperor of Germany. Each was bold, 
daring, unscrupulous, and ambitious. The discoveries 
made in the new world had aroused the minds of the 
people to independent inquiry and bold investigation. 



148 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

During this period, Luther's pen and voice shocked, 
then stirred to action, the religious world. The contest 
was soon transferred to the battle-field. Never before 
in the world's history had the human mind asserted its 
spiritual freedom. 

From this starting-point, the student may trace the 
current of history backward into the ignorance and 
gloom of the dark ages, or go forward, keeping pace 
with the tide of civilization. It is unnecessary to mul- 
tiply illustrations ; the teacher can select them. 

IY. What Effect should be Pkoduced? 

Hitherto the pupil is supposed to follow the current 
of history without entering fully into the spirit of it, 
only in so far as he comprehends the motives of the 
actors themselves. He has arrived at that critical stage 
in his mental development when he is partially pre- 
pared, at least, to enter wider spheres of human activity, 
and to contemplate the actions of men as the resultant 
of forces designed to accomplish specific purposes. He 
so far forgets himself for the time being as to become 
Greek, Roman, Crusader ; in short, he thinks, lives, and 
feels what he reads. As the nations come and go upon 
the ever-changing scenes of time, he follows their en- 
trances and exits, and learns from their birth, progress, 
maturity, and decay, that they, too, are governed by 
universal laws. From all these lessons of the past he 
accumulates knowledge which enables him to compare 
the civil, political, military, and religious institutions 
of the ancients and moderns with those of his own 
country. Having his mind well stored with such in- 
formation, he is better qualified to discuss all public 



TEACHING HISTORY. 149 

questions, of whatever nature, than the one who is un- 
able to draw practical lessons from the experiences of 
other nations. 

Should the student take our country as his model, 
he must know its history in all its minutiae as well as 
in its boldest outlines, and then compare the history of 
other countries with it, and note the differences and 
agreements as he prosecutes his inquiries. Material 
gathered, classified — conclusions deduced — are the steps 
in the mental process. There was a Greek civilization 
different from ours, yet ours is flavored with Athenian 
thought ; a Roman civilization certainly not ours, but 
we have borrowed much from it ; from the forests of 
Germany, the sunny plains of Italy, the valleys of 
France, the lowlands of Holland, the hills of Scotland, 
and the downs of England — each and all have con- 
tributed elements to our civilization. To pick them 
out and assort them is the task of the special historian ; 
yet, after this refining process is carried out to the last 
analysis, there will be found much that is distinctively 
American. Climate, circumstances, laws, manners, cus- 
toms, distinctive traits of character, even wit and humor, 
cause one nation to differ from others. 

In our country man is the unit, and his individuality 
is offered the fullest and freest scope. No barriers are 
imposed to arrest his highest forms of mental, moral, 
and social development. Authority and liberty join 
hands, and the freedom of the individual is limited only 
by the welfare of the whole. 

As a mere matter of fact, it is not very important 
to know that Columbus sailed from a port in Spain on 
the 3d day of August ; but it is important that he 
14 



150 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

sailed, discovered an unknown world, and that it was 
colonized by the best blood of Spain, and that, while 
Spaniards settled the new world, Spain lost her su- 
premacy in the old world. 

To comprehend the differences existing between 
our laws, manners, customs, modes of education, com- 
mercial, manufacturing, and agricultural pursuits, and 
those of other nations, the pupil is obliged to familiarize 
himself with the fundamental principles upon which 
governments are instituted, laws are enacted and car- 
ried into effect, and the rights of individuals and the 
liberties of the people are secured. Society, under 
whatever aspect it is viewed, is a complex organism^ 
and governmental authority in different countries i& 
maintained and exercised under widely different formsw 
To compare these forms and to study them ; to ascertain 
how the civil, municipal, and other authorities settle 
disputes and administer justice among men, are sub- 
jects of the greatest importance in the education of the 
citizen who is to prize the form of government under 
which he lives. 

Not only should the intelligent citizen clearly under- 
stand the origin, development, and nature of our gov- 
ernment, with its marked outlines and co-ordinate de- 
partments nicely and wisely adapted to one another,, 
constituting a compact system that rests for its support 
upon the affections and reverence of the people, but he 
must also understand how it is, as an expression of the 
popular will expressed by representatives on the one 
side and the consent of the people on the other, opposed 
to those forms of government whose citizens have had 
no hand in forming and no voice in approving. 



TEACHING HISTORY. 151 

That a citizen in some sense has had a hand in shap- 
ing the form of government under which he lives, and 
that he has compared his own workmanship with that 
of other people, and that it does not suffer in the com- 
parison, tend to beget a contentment with the present 
condition of affairs, and a disposition to prevent radical 
changes in politics without due deliberation. If evils 
exist, he prefers peaceable means at the ballot-box as a 
corrective. Confidence in the people exists, and he 
knows that the people get close enough to the fountain* 
head to make and to unmake congressmen, senators, and 
presidents. This is the ever-present remedy he relies 
upon for changing the existing order of things. Upon 
every hand is felt the strong power of the government, 
manifested more in its moral influence than in its official 
capacity. Everywhere civil officers abound, but, except- 
ing policemen, without the insignia of office. Should 
his knowledge by travel be enlarged, he is impressed 
upon every nand by the continual presence of national 
officials, tax-gatherers, civil magistrates, and other public 
functionaries. 

Experience has taught the pupil somewhat of the 
duties of the various township, county, town, city, state, 
and national officers, how they are elected or appointed, 
and he naturally inquires what duties corresponding 
officers in other countries perform, how they are ap- 
pointed, and the limits of their functions. Such in- 
quiries open up a boundless, though not a useless, field 
for investigation. It will show that the roots of our 
civil system lie deep in the nations that preceded ours, 
and that, in a large degree, our form of government is 
eclectic. Under all climes human nature is pretty much 



152 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

the same, and man is never degraded in using power 
except when he consciously and willfully abuses the 
authority entrusted to his keeping. 

History as such must always be read in the light of 
motives. If the student of history interprets it by any 
other light, he is journeying across an unknown sea 
without chart and compass. 

To teachers of history I can not conclude this topic 
in a more becoming manner than by quoting the follow- 
ing extract : 

" We educate the future citizens of the United 
States, not the future citizens of Prussia, of France, of 
England, of China, or of Japan. This must dictate 
our methods. Nor shall we forget that, although citizens 
of the United States, they are to be men and women. 
The particular shall not swallow up the general: We 
will not educate Spartans. 'Not shall the general ob- 
literate the particular : We will not educate blank ab- 
stract humanitarians." 



CHAPTER XII. 

TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 

Mr. Darwin tells us that, when three persons went 
into a thicket in which a magpie had its nest, it would 
fiy away, and wait for the three to go out before it 
came back ; but that, when more than three went into 
the thicket together, and then went out one at a time, 
it became confused ; clearly indicating, as he thought, 
and as many believe, that the bird could count up to 
that number, three, and retain it in its mind ; but that 
above three it was unable to keep a correct record. 
There are some persons, and it may be said some tribes 
of people, who appear to be unable to count to any ex- 
tended degree. Beyond five, ten, or twenty, they can 
only represent the numbers which they can not com- 
prehend. The idea of number is evidently intuitive, 
and the disposition to count seems to have its origin in 
the distribution and collection, the separating and the 
bringing together, of things used in the common trans- 
actions of life. This gives us the basis of all mathe- 
matical reasoning. Arithmetic has, from the time of 
the ancient Greeks, been regarded as one of the essen- 
tial branches of study in school. Should you ask to- 
day what two studies are most important in our school- 



154 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

work, the reply would be, without hesitation, " reading 
and arithmetic," because upon these two depend all 
classification in the lower grades of schools. Reading 
is the key that unlocks the door of the temple of knowl- 
edge ; and, if we consider it in the sense in which the 
Germans use it in their schools, it includes grammar, 
literature — everything that we bring under the term 
" language." It is by means of language that we com- 
municate and receive knowledge on all subjects, and 
hence it is the " key." 

Arithmetic is the basis of all classification of pupils. 
In putting this subject prominently forward, I would 
not be understood as underestimating in any degree the 
importance of other branches. 

Two objects must be kept in view in teaching arith- 
metic : first, accuracy ; secondly, rapidity ; but these are 
the results of attentive practice. Above these, how- 
ever, is the development of the faculty of consecutive 
thought. Arithmetic is to most children a pleasing 
study. They love certainty in their work; and this 
study, properly taught, carries with it that degree of 
freedom from error which places it upon a higher vant- 
age-ground than can be accorded to the other common 
branches. Yet, as it is usually presented in the text- 
books, it is dry, and requires the greatest tact and skill 
upon the part of teachers to make it attractive and in- 
teresting. 

Many methods have been proposed for teaching 
arithmetic to small children. It is not our purpose, 
nor would it be appropriate, to pass judgment upon 
them now. There is something good in every method. 
But the average child knows more than the teacher 



TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 155 

gives him credit for, and the routine drill which is too 
commonly practiced, and which ignores what the child 
already knows, stupefies instead of stimulates the intel- 
lectual faculties. 

The human mind delights to see truths under a 
variety of forms, and to reduce new and complete 
forms back to original and known elements. This is 
why a devotee of mathematics finds such exquisite de- 
light in unraveling intricate relations and expressing 
them in known symbols. 

The trouble which so many teachers experience in 
getting pupils to understand arithmetic is not inher- 
ent in the subject itself, nor in the mental inabil- 
ity of pupils to comprehend it, except in rare in- 
stances, but is owing entirely to defective methods of 
instruction. 

Not many years since an assistant superintendent of 
schools in a Western city concluded that the pupils there 
could not learn arithmetic because of certain atmospheric 
conditions which, in some mysterious manner, obscured 
the mathematical faculty. The reason for this defect 
was not in the atmosphere, unless in that of the school- 
room. Haziness probably existed in the mental atmos- 
phere of the teacher. 

"When a mother says to me that her daughter can 
not learn arithmetic, I feel sorry for both mother and 
daughter, though not satisfied that her statement is cor- 
rect. There may be imbeciles, unable to learn arith- 
metic or any other subject,' and there may be those who 
make slow progress, but the difficulty is usually owing 
to the fact that the subject has not been properly pre- 
sented. Some pupils learn more easily than others, but 



156 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

it is quite certain that the ordinary rules of arithmetic 
can be learned by any person not an imbecile. 

The most difficult part of this problem is in teaching 
arithmetic to beginners. The mind of the child ought 
to expand gradually in all directions, and should not be 
confined in its actions to mere mechanical drill, lest it 
lose its elasticity and buoyancy. Pupils commence 
arithmetic as soon as they enter school, and it is at the 
beginning that most care is to be exercised in avoiding 
that air of abstractness which is made to surround 
and mystify a subject that would otherwise be easily 
understood. "No number should be given them with- 
out its application to objects which they can see. Let 
it be to them clearly a concrete number. 

Suppose we visit a school-room together in which 
there are seventy pupils about six years of age. There 
is a nicely carpeted platform for the teacher, and on this 
platform a table with a beautiful cover on it. In the 
room is a large number of pictures — some hanging on 
the walls, others resting against them. On the table 
are more than fifty different kinds of objects that the 
eye can see : rubber dolls, several of one kind ; little 
pewter pans ; little shells, that have been picked up by 
the children ; and many other little objects. ISTote the 
character of the exercises. The children have been in 
school but a short time. At first, they were liable to 
forget where their seats were, and lose themselves; but 
now they will, at a given signal, advance with the pre- 
cision of soldiers, coming out into the aisles to go 
through their calisthenic exercises, and then return to 
their seats. They know exactly where they belong, and 
can solve problems. 



TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 157 

What do tliey do 1 One little fellow rises and says : 
u John gave Mary two dolls, and had two dolls left ; 
how many dolls had he at first?" He then goes to 
the table, picks up two dolls, and says : " There are two 
dolls left." Then he picks up two more dolls, puts 
them with the first two, and shows that there are four 
dolls. Now, he wishes to express this on the board. 
He might first try to make a picture of the object, but 
he has already begun to use the symbols, and writes 
2 + 2 = 4. In fifteen minutes these children make 
more than fifteen problems, each child who makes one 
explaining it to the other children, showing the objects 
he has used. This is rational teaching, not parrot-like 
teaching, but genuine, beginning with what the child 
knows and understands, and teaching him to reason 
from this to the unknown. It is readily seen that there 
is no difficulty in the method. No person can come 
out of a school in which such a system is pursued and 
say that the children do not understand what they are 
doing. They learn by doing with material things, and 
can understand the process and the result. There is 
but a step from the " doing," as just illustrated, to the 
introduction of symbols — the figures which express 
things to us. One can see a boy ; then, without the 
presence of the boy, he can speak of a boy ; then of a 
picture of a boy. He can hear the spoken word " boy " ; 
he can see the written or printed word "boy"; but 
when it comes to symbols, the boy may be represented 
by the figure " 1," and the child soon learns to deal with 
figures as symbols of objects. 

There is no teaching, no culture of the intellectual 
faculties, in requiring a pupil to stand and count to a 



158 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

hundred, a thousand, or any other number, unless illus- 
trations should be made with objects collected by the 
children from all sources at their command. This keeps 
up a deep interest in the subject, and it helps to fix 
the principles in the mind. There is no reason why 
little children should not be taught to work with the 
simpler fractions just as they do with whole numbers. 
They enjoy the work, and take as great interest in illus- 
trating it. 

Not long since, in visiting a second-grade (second 
year in the primary school) room, I gave the following 
problem to the pupils : " If a load of wood costs three 
dollars and a half, what would four loads cost ? " 

The teacher spoke up at once, " These children have 
not had fractions"; but, before she had finished the 
sentence, nearly all hands were up, and the answer came 
promptly, " $14." Here is the solution they gave me : 
" At $3 a cord, it would cost $12, and at half a dollar a 
cord, four cords would cost $2 ; and $12 and $2 are 
$14" Yet these Second Eeader children had never 
studied fractions, and the teacher was surprisingly ig- 
norant of the information they had on the subject of 
fractions. 

The teacher ought to find out how much the children 
know, instead of assuming that she knows it without 
inquiry. 

CULTURE OF THE THINKING- FACULTIES. 

A question among educators is how to teach each 
branch so as to develop the thinking faculties. The 
following suggestions are submitted as having a direct 
bearing on this subject : 



TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 159 

1. For every problem selected from the text-book, 
select three problems from outside sources. 

2. Let the pupils make new or original problems, 
or else vary the conditions of those already given, and 
then solve them. The sooner pupils are put to making 
problems, or changing the conditions of those already 
given, the better they will understand the subject, aud 
the more substantial will be their progress. 

3. When the pupil comes to a new problem he tries 
to bring it under a form that he already knows — that 
is, he seeks a relationship, and, when this is once found, 
he proceeds to reduce it by an already f amiliar process. 

4. Trace all problems back to primary principles. 
Since the idea of number is intuitive with the race, 

the object of the educator should be to develop this 
faculty in a natural manner as the intellectual powers 
of the pupil are unfolded. The order of developing 
this subject is not different from that in teaching other 
branches. Evidently the very first process is that of 
putting together, followed immediately by separation. 

Objects first attract the child's attention, and then 
he endeavors to put them together and to remember 
them, or to tell how many there are. From this it is 
inferred that all arithmetical teaching at first should be 
real or objective. Close study of child-mind points 
unmistakably to the following order : 

1. Objects. 

2. Numbering, or naming objects. 

3. Names of objects as numbers. 

4. Symbols of numbers. 

5. "Working with symbols. 

6. Fractical applications. 



160 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

As is well known, the subject of arithmetic is fre- 
quently taught in such a manner as to stifle all efforts 
on the part of the pupils, and from the fact that they 
do not understand the processes that they mechanically 
perform. Instead of approaching the subject through 
the natural channel of objects, they are introduced at 
the outset to the symbolic processes, which lie beyond 
their reach. 

All rational methods begin with objects first, then 
followed by the word that groups the objects into one 
whole, and, lastly, the symbolic number which is more 
general than the name of the object. Again, it should 
be remembered that in mental processes the mind puts 
together and separates, and this constitutes analysis and 
synthesis; and, further, after the pupil has acquired 
the art of reading and writing numbers, that all the 
operations which can be performed on numbers may 
be reduced to the following: Increasing, decreasing, 
raising to powers, and extracting roots. Furthermore, 
that the whole chain of mathematical reasoning is a 
series of comparisons, or a discovering of relations that 
subsist between the known factors in a given question 
and those that are implied. The idea of comparison 
lies at the foundation of Pestalozzi's system of teaching. 
It gives his philosophy of education its intellectual 
value. And upon this principle is also based the 
" Grube Method," which is measuring numbers in and 
under all possible combinations. Perhaps the author 
carries it too far, but it contains many valuable features, 
and should be thoroughly understood by every primary 
teacher in our country. But there are other features 
connected with arithmetical teaching which demand 



TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 161 

careful consideration, and first and foremost is this prin- ' 
ciple : To understand arithmetic the child must at first 
do the work objectively, and then pnt it into the sym- 
bolic form. 

This meaning can best be understood by a few appro- 
priate illustrations. The ordinary method of teach- 
ing this subject is to make the learners proficient in 
handling abstract numbers before introducing concrete 
examples ; processes are accounted of more permanent 
value than the reasons upon which processes are based. 
While not undervaluing this feature of arithmetical 
operations, it is a violation of the natural order in which 
knowledge is acquired to put it first. Nature's method 
is that of intelligent work before generalizations can be 
deduced. 

Suppose the pupil in his progress in arithmetic is 
set to learning the table for ""Wine Measure." He 
may have studied it over till he can repeat it glibly 
from memory, and even give the equivalents of the 
different denominations in terms of the others, but the 
essential question of whether, in all this memorizing, 
the pupil's understanding is thoroughly reached, can 
be determined only by testing his knowledge of what 
he knows of the subject. 

Upon the other hand, if we approach this " table " 
from the objective standpoint, we are struck with the 
simplicity as well as with the superiority of the method. 
Before the pupil studies the "table," let him be fur- 
nished with a gill, pint, quart, half -gallon, and a gallon 
measure, and a bushel of sand or a bucket of water, 
and then put to filling these different measures, first 
filling the pint cup by using the gill measure, emptying 
15 



162 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

the pint into the quart measure, the quart measure into 
the half -gallon measure, and so on. After the gallon 
measure is filled it may be measured by each of the other 
measures, and thus, following out the philosophy in 
knowing one thing and comparing others with it, definite 
knowledge is obtained. The pupils literally do the table. 

There is no question as to the superiority of this 
method over the memorizing one. 

To learn the " Table of Long or Linear Measure," 
the pupil, with " foot-rule, yard-stick, or tape-line," is 
put to measuring and reporting results, and I do not 
hesitate to say that this is the only sensible way to learn 
this or any other table to be used in measuring any 
substance whatever. 

From the first lessons in numbers the little child 
should be trained to deal with fractional numbers in 
their simple forms just as he is with integral numbers, 
the idea of fractions having been first obtained by an ex- 
amination of divided objects, following the same method 
as the one indicated in doing the " tables." Apples di- 
vided into halves, thirds, fourths, etc., furnish excellent 
illustrations. It is better for the children to make the 
divisions. The order is : the object as a whole ; sec- 
ondly, the divided object; thirdly, the names of the 
parts ; fourthly, the symbol placed on the board or slate 
that represents the parts; fifthly, uniting the parts 
again into one whole ; lastly, applications. 

All arithmetical problems in the elementary and 
advanced grades should partake largely of a business 
character ; but vigorous drills on the fundamental rules 
must never be relaxed. 

Many abstract exercises may give celerity in ma- 



TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 163 

nipulating figures, but the thinking faculties are not 
developed. Processes without thought have but slight 
educational value. Repeating abstract operations in a 
dull lifeless manner, day after day, in the rules of arith- 
metic is a stultifying process, for, when the pupil once 
learns that 7 X 9 = 63, or 9 X 7 = 63, repeating these 
operations ten thousand times will give no additional 
information. All work should be promptly done. 

MENTAL OR INTELLECTUAL ARITHMETIC 

deserves more than a passing notice. It is pre-emi- 
nently the logic of the common branches, and if taught 
at the proper time is productive of great good. Now, 
all arithmetic is mental in this, that it requires, or should 
require, some effort of the mind to think out the method 
of the solution ; and, furthermore, so-called practical 
arithmetic should always precede the mental arithmetic 
in a course of instruction. Mental arithmetic is more 
abstract than practical arithmetic ; hence it should fol- 
low the latter in the earlier years of instruction, and, 
later on, both may be pursued simultaneously. 

When mental arithmetic is pursued as a separate 
and an independent study, the following order of pre- 
senting and teaching the subject is recommended as 
one that calls into exercise the greatest number of the 
intellectual faculties, to wit : 

The teacher will read or state the problem once, 
distinctly; the pupils will give the answer, indicated 
by raising hands ; the next step, a pupil, or pupils, re- 
produce the question; then the analysis ; and, lastly, the 
conclusion. Long, tedious analyses are to be avoided 
as a noxious pestilence. 



164 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 



Teaching Arithmetic. 

I. Teacher. 

1. Knowledge of the subject. 

2. Love of the work. 

3. Aptitude to teach. 

4. Teach one thing at a time. 

II. Beginners, 

1. Need slates, pencils, etc. 

2. Should be taught to observe and to think. 

3. To express thoughts by symbols. 

III. Primary Methods. 

1. Principles and fundamental processes. 

2. Fractions. 

3. Denominate numbers, etc. 

IV. Oral and Written. 

1. Tables, etc. 

2. Business forms. 

3. Applications. 

V. Mental Arithmetic— Steps. 






CHAPTER XIII. 

HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 

The farmer plants corn in May or June, when the 
ground is warm. Should he do so in December or Jan- 
uary, the corn would not grow. Should he leave the 
old stalks standing in the field, and begin to cultivate 
them in the warm days of spring, no life would return 
to them ; they are dead. The stalk of corn was devel- 
oped from a germ once imbedded in the kernel of the 
grain. With moisture from the earth, and heat from 
the sun, the life within the kernel manifested itself in 
what we call the shoot, which came to the top of the 
ground, grew upward, forming the stalk, and sent roots 
downward into the earth. During the period of its 
growth the farmer cultivated it, and in the fall there 
came a full ear, perfect, mature, ready for use. 

The growth of corn is symbolical of the growth of 
the child from infancy to old age. If the corn is not 
properly cultivated, no ear is formed, and there is no 
kernel for use as food, or for the next year's planting. 
So it is with the child if he grows up without the in- 
fluences and training which gradually build up charac- 
ter and perfect the individual. 

Every human being has two lives — the mental life 



166 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

and the physical life. It is of the latter I shall speak 
at present ; not, however, to discuss at length the anato- 
my and physiology of the parts of the body, or to enter 
upon the subject of comparative physiology. Accord- 
ing to the principles of education, we should begin 
with that which the child can see, can handle — that 
which he knows. 

. It is a mistake to put a text-book into the hands of 
school-children when it bristles with long, technical 
terms, hard to leam and easy to forget. Few physicians 
can tell the names of all the muscles of the body. Even 
if these names were all committed to memory, they are 
worth little in giving any knowledge of the subject. 
In talking about these things, especially to children, it 
seems better to describe them by pointing out their 
uses. 

For the purpose of classifying the subject under 
discussion, we shall consider the body as composed of 
three great systems: the blood-producing, the blood- 
circulating, and the nervous systems. The first pre- 
pares the food for use by converting the nutritive por- 
tions into such forms as can enter the blood. Then the 
circulatory system carries the blood containing these 
nutritive particles to all parts of the body, gathers up 
waste matter on the way, and takes it to the lungs. In 
the lungs it meets the inspired air, from which it takes 
the purifying oxygen, giving in return the impurities 
which pass off with the expired air in the form of car- 
bonic acid. 

Growth is a law of our being. We grow mentally 
and we grow physically. 

To grow, the body must have food, which includes 



HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 167 

what we eat and what we drink. The body is sustained 
by proper food, pure air, exercise, rest, and sleep. But 
the quantity and quality must be taken into account and 
adapted to the conditions of the system. If you take 
a young colt and ride it too much, it will become 
" sway-backed " ; if a little child is induced to walk be- 
fore its bones are strong enough to support its weight, 
it will grow "bow-legged." It is a great mistake to 
overload children in any way. If they have too many 
studies or too long lessons in school, their minds suffer ; 
if their bodies are overburdened, they become de- 
formed. 

So of the stomach, which is the principal digestive 
organ ; if it is overloaded with food, it can not proper- 
ly prepare it for the nourishment of the body. 

Pressure upon any of the vital organs, or upon the 
nerves, is injurious to health. 

The amount of air required by each child or older 
person varies from 1,000 to 2,000 cubic feet every hour, 
the first amount named being perhaps sufficient for 
small children. Suppose you are in a room 60 feet 
long, 25 feet wide, and 15 feet high, containing just 
22,500 cubic feet of space, occupied by 80 persons, 
each requiring 2,000 cubic feet of air every hour. 
Making no allowance for the space occupied by these 
eighty persons and the furniture of the room, all the air 
in the room would be spoiled in about eight minutes — 
that is, the carbonic-acid gas passing off from the lungs 
would in that time render all the air in the room im- 
pure, unfit to breathe again. Eesides, there is an in- 
sensible perspiration passing off from the body in all 
directions, adding to the impurity in the air. It is by 



168 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

such means that persons who are sick communicate 
contagion. There seems to be a kind of germ, which 
goes floating off into the air and communicating disease. 

Since the air becomes so rapidly vitiated, the venti- 
lation of school-rooms is a question of grave importance, 
but one which teachers too often neglect, even after they 
have been talked to about it day after day, week after 
week, month after month, and almost year after year. 
Even with so-called self-registers^ the air is frequently 
allowed to become impure. The necessity of attention 
becomes even more apparent when we consider the de- 
pendence of the health of the entire body upon the 
perfect mutual relations between circulation and respi- 
ration, and the quality of the supplies furnished; of 
nutriment for distribution to all parts of the body by 
means of the circulation of the blood, and of air to the 
lungs for the purification of the blood as it passes 
through them on its way to the heart, there to gather 
fresh impetus for another journey as distributor of life- 
giving, and collector of dead, particles. The blood dis- 
tributes its supplies for assimilation to the needs of the 
body, and acts as scavenger ; but all this were vain did 
not the respiratory organs bring the oxygen in to drive 
out the carbonic acid, the poisonous product of decay. 
If ventilation is neglected, this poison remains in the 
blood to unite with freshly collected poison, and disease 
is the result, then suffering — death. 

Teachers have no right to be careless in regard to 
this matter. Carelessness is criminality, and criminality 
means death. In almost every school-room there is 
some way to get the bad air out. Open door and win- 
dows, if no other way, and let the children run out and 



HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 16Q 

play, and let in pure air. If in doubt about the purity 
of the air in the room, step outside, inhale a few whiffs, 
then go into the school-room, and the contrast will tell 
the tale. Try it often. Result — astonishing ! 

EXERCISE. 

We are told by those men who go away into the 
arctic regions that young seals are seen playing on the 
cakes of ice during the coldest days. It is natural for 
the young of all animals to play, and it is just as nat- 
ural for a young child to play if it is in good health. 
It needs exercise, and needs it often. Children of 
larger growth need it too ; it is one of the elements of 
life. If there are any persons so unfortunate as to be 
born rich enough to live without work, they are the 
ones who ought to practice in a gymnasium, so as to 
get the needed amount of physical exercise. It is an 
old saying that " all work and no play makes Jack a 
dull boy." The Greeks said that "a bow kept always 
strung would not shoot.' 5 Hence the bow at times 
must be relaxed, and the human body must have relaxa- 
tion after labor. If the labor is mental, the mind must 
rest and the body have exercise. During study there is 
a greater now of blood to the brain, and a correspond- 
ing decrease to other parts of the body. Exercise prop- 
erly taken restores the equilibrium by bringing action 
to those parts of the body which have been at rest. 

TEMPERAMENTS. 

There are different physiological conditions and dif- 
ferent mental characteristics. Suppose, for illustration, 
we compare two men whom we know. One of them is 



170 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

a perfect specimen of manhood, well rounded, tall and 
healthy ; there is another, sharp, angular. The contrast 
between them is very striking. The first shows a com- 
bination of the bilious, nervous, and vital temperaments. 
How do we know it? The second is of a nervous- 
bilious temperament. The first has smooth hands, with 
round, tapering fingers ; the other has angular hands, 
with knotted, bony fingers. The muscles of the first are 
well developed ; the other is far inferior in muscular 
development, and needs an active out-door life to give 
him strength of body. Evidently they should follow 
different occupations. Different temperaments need 
different treatment; hence, teachers should study the 
temperaments of children. There may be one little 
boy who can lift fifty pounds, but should we argue from 
that that another who weighs as much can lift the same 
weight % Suppose we say to all the children in a school- 
room, regardless of their temperaments and different 
degrees of strength, "You must lift that fifty-pound 
weight." All are absurdly put to lifting the same thing 
in the same way, without regard to their ability. 

There is a difference between trees. Compare the 
basswood-tree with the hickory : one is easily broken, and 
the other can be bent down without breaking, spring- 
ing back again of itself. It is just so with children. 
A child who has a nervous temperament does not need 
to be goaded to work, but a boy of a bilious tempera- 
ment may be so insensible that even a whip would not 
bring him into the line of march. A teacher who can 
understand the temperament of a child as soon as she 
sees it will be the successful teacher. A child who has 
a nervous temperament will learn rapidly, and may 



HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 171 

soon distance the others. Such as these should usually 
be restrained, and never driven. Here is a case in point : 
A little girl attending a school had a precocious mind, 
but a slight, frail body. Her mother was proud of her 
— anxious to display her ability. To the mother the 
superintendent said: "You are killing that child by 
pushing her too rapidly forward ; let her play out-of- 
doors." The mother did not believe him, but urged the 
child onward in her studies, and with the predicted re- 
sult of death. 

Every teacher should read what has been written 
by the best authors on temperaments, and study human 
nature as it is, mind and body together. We have 
studied the mind without the body, and the body with 
the elements composing it, but there is a mutual de- 
pendence enabling us to judge each in some measure 
by the manifestation of the other. In a person having 
sharp, angular features, and a large, broad forehead, the 
nervous temperament predominates ; while another with 
a full, plump body, a round figure, and agreeable feat- 
ures, is the possessor of the vital temperament. He has 
a large, full chest, breathing-room for his lungs, and his 
other vital organs are well developed. There is another, 
perhaps, with a gaunt, angular physiognomy, sharp feat- 
ures, large bones and joints, and a yellowish color of 
the skin, with distant, hollow-looking eyes : he is of the 
" bilious " or " frame-work " temperament. 

Teachers, working among children, ought to manage 
each child according to his temperament. Not forget- 
ting, however, that pure air, good food, and cleanliness 
are needed by all. 'Tis true, the bath is not a feature 
of school-room work, but the teacher must impress its 



172 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

importance upon the minds of all pupils. This applies 
to day-schools. In boarding-schools the teachers have 
the entire charge, and are in duty bound to attend to 
this matter. 

Physiology teaches that, in the form of insensible 
perspiration, about five eighths of everything we take 
into the body passes off through the pores of the skin. 
For this reason clothing which is worn next to the body 
during the day should not be worn at night, and that 
worn at night should be well aired during the day. 
Our beds, too, should be thoroughly aired during the 
day, and the sleeping-rooms carefully ventilated. 

Health and Hygiene — Body. 



rarts. 

Bones and joints. 
Digestive organs. 
Nervous system. 


Muscles. 

Circulative system, 
Skin. 


Support* 

Food. 
Exercise. 


Air. 

Rest and sleep. 


Care. 




Clothing. 

Amount of air. 

Hygiene of the school-house. 


Kinds of food. 

Ventilation. 

Bathing. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

ONLY A BOY. 

"A very peculiar hoy, and the teacher does not un- 
derstand him/' is the confiding mother's verdict nine 
times ont of ten. Teachers, have yon not already formed 
the acquaintance of the " peculiar boy " as interpreted 
by his affectionate but misguided mother ? Have you 
not analyzed the ingredients of this "peculiar boy's 
mind," and tested them in the educational balance? 
Have you not studied his mental characteristics and 
traced each one to its most secret hiding-place i Have 
you not mapped every emotion, affection, and desire, 
then divided and subdivided, and separated the true 
from the false, and ascertained by so doing that " this 
peculiar boy " had much in common with other boys ? 
Did you take " this peculiar boy " mentally to pieces, and 
find out by an examination of his intellectual and moral 
mechanism that he was a well-contrived and well-made 
human machine, capable of doing good work if only 
properly regulated and directed ? 

But here comes the boy himself. He stands before 

us. He knows that he is " a peculiar boy." His mother 

has said so a thousand times, and he has heard her 

every time. She ascribes his singular disposition to 

16 



174 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

changes in the weather and other like occult influences, 
all of which speculations assist the boy in playing a 
dual existence, and changing from one to the other so 
readily that his mother is unable to detect the decep- 
tion. 

I have yet to see the " peculiar boy " free from de- 
ception. Peculiarity— or his peculiarity — may assume 
a thousand different forms of mind and body. Not 
long since I had the satisfaction of watching a "pecul- 
iar boy " for fifteen minutes while his grown sister ex- 
plained to the teacher some of the peculiarities of this 
"peculiar boy," the chief of which was that he was 
"unmanageable at home, and they could do nothing 
with him " ; but she insisted that the teacher should 
control him without punishing him for offenses he 
might commit during school hours. This boy had seen 
the snows of ten winters, and, while his sister proceeded 
to enlighten the meek and patient teacher, the " pecul- 
iar boy" indulged in the following innocent sports : 1. 
He struck a boy near him in the side with a slate. 2. 
He crawled around on the floor under his desk hunting 
for a pin that he had dropped the day before. 3. 
While on the floor he put his left foot above his desk 
and executed a half-dozen kicking motions with that 
same foot, pretending, as he said, that "his foot was 
asleep, and he wanted to wake it." 4. Next he reached 
across the aisle and jerked a boy's boot-strap. He had 
not yet found the pin. 5. He lay flat under his desk 
and inspected in a very deliberate manner a joint in the 
floor. Well satisfied with the result of his floor observa- 
tions, he crawled into the aisle, took a general survey 
of the surroundings, and then arose ? half -bent, and tick- 



ONLY A BOY. 175 

led a boy's neck with a scrap of paper. G. A little girl 
looked at biro., and he pnlled her hair to teach her a 
practical lesson. 7. He now took his seat, and, in doing 
so, cast furtive glances and winked at the pupils whose 
eyes turned toward him. 8. In less than a minute he 
was kicking a boy who sat directly in front of him, and, 
when the boy complained, he declared that he " hadn't 
touched the boy." 

Treatment. — The above is only one instance of 
many that have fallen under my observation. Yet the 
question for the teacher to decide is what to do with 
such cases ? Shall the boy be turned out of school be- 
cause his influence contaminates others and he is far be- 
yond the limit of parental control ? Before the teacher 
arrives at a conclusion, all the circumstances connected 
with the boy's history should be carefully and conscien- 
tiously weighed. 

If the teacher sees a chance to turn " his peculiari- 
ties " to a good account, he will not be slow to do so ; 
but, if no favorable conditions are present, there is only 
one course for the teacher to pursue, and that is to send 
the intractable child to his parents. 

It is a mistaken policy for school authorities to per- 
mit pupils to remain in school when they forfeit every 
right that is guaranteed by the laws of the State. Any 
citizen who behaves himself is entitled to the full en- 
joyment of all those absolute and acquired rights given 
by the Creator and by statutory enactments for his hap- 
piness and general prosperity, but with this proviso, 
that he will not abuse the great boon conferred, other- 
wise he loses all. 

The "peculiar boy's disposition" is a home-made 



176 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

article, and badly spoiled in the manufacture. Sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere of disorder, fitfulness, and 
fickleness, perhaps tainted with deception and other 
vices, he comes to school not to learn obedience, but to 
do as he pleases without restraint. "When the teacher 
has exhausted all available resources, it is time to notify 
parents and school authorities that the boy's presence 
can not be tolerated longer in the school-room unless 
there is a very sudden conversion. 

Remark. — I am not now speaking of those defects 
of the mind or of the body which render the child unfit 
to be in school. 

THE PETTED AHD SPOILED BOY. 

This specimen of the human species has not so 
many ailments as the " peculiar boy." His case is dif- 
ferent, symptoms are not the same, and the treatment 
is also dissimilar. Unless everything goes to suit his 
fancy, he is seen with a budding cry or a sprouting 
whimper on his face. Crying for things or crying 
because he can not have his own way, the acquired 
condition of his earthly existence. 

The little story of " Mother, I want a piece of cake," 
well expresses the visible co-efficient of this boy's face. 
Right back of him at home is a weak-minded father or 
mother ; probably both are afflicted with this complaint. 
The boy being shrewd enough to understand their weak- 
ness, and having found out that crying is the most ef- 
fective plea to secure any object or the gratification of 
any whim which he fancies, does not hesitate to employ 
his skill to aid him in the furtherance of his wishes. 
Having managed his parents, his next effort is to cap- 



ONLY A BOY. 177 

tare the teacher by the same means. Of course, an 
experienced teacher will see through the situation at a 
glance, and will not be imposed upon, although the boy 
may be somewhat re-enforced by one or both his par- 
ents, who, by misguided zeal and moral weakness, do 
not clearly understand the nature of their own child 
and just how to treat him. A vacillating will-power 
and a perverse blindness to childish willfulness and de- 
ception are serious obstacles to the teacher's progress 
in correcting the faults of the "petted and spoiled 
child." But the child is in school. He is spoiled. 
The teacher knows it, and the pupils are not ignorant 
of it either. How can he be most successfully treated \ 
Here, indeed, is a school problem ! To give an answer, 
let us suppose a hypothetical case. The boy is a deli- 
cate little fellow physically; large blue eyes, a high, 
full forehead, flaxen hair, a slender frame, a milky com- 
plexion produced from eating rich and highly seasoned 
indigestible food, a nervous temperament, with only a 
slight admixture with the motive and vital tempera- 
ments. Picture him before you as the "petted and 
spoiled boy"! 

As I take it, the first step is to gain this child's con- 
fidence. A dog knows how to approach a stranger and 
win his kindness. There is some avenue open to this 
child's better nature. A little judicious digging and 
spading around will enable the teacher to find it. Make 
no mistakes, but strike the right lead at first. Teacher, 
don't dig till you are sure, and you will capture him. 
He is taken as the farmer's wife catches a mole in the 
garden. She waits and watches till the mole begins to 
dig near the top of the ground; then she digs with 



178 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

the spade just ahead of the inole, and instantly just be- 
hind him, tossing him out on top of the ground. She 
never mistakes the hour, the place, or the means to cap- 
ture the mole. By a little judicious and faithful work 
the teacher can capture the " petted and spoiled boy," 
and have him completely under her control. 

The child I have presented is of such peculiar men- 
tal and physical organization as to be very susceptible 
to appeals made to his higher emotional nature through 
his intellectual faculties. Naturally, the child of the 
delicately-wrought nervous temperament is not cruel 
and brutal, yet he may be sly and crafty. Subdue or 
lull into repose the vicious tendencies and stimulate the 
nobler ones to increased activity. It may be necessary 
to excite his self-approbation or his desire to have 
others— and especially his teacher and schoolmates — 
think well of him. "Whatever influence is proper should 
be brought to bear upon him to move him in the line 
of right conduct. 

Above all, the teacher must be honest with the 
child. No deception will answer the purpose. Chil- 
dren read motives, actions, and words intuitively. 

Since the " petted and spoiled child " may be of any 
temperament, let us extend our inquiries. 

For present purposes children may be classified into 
three groups, namely, the good, the medium, and the 
bad. 

The first group will give but little or no trouble at 
home or in school. They behave properly, and only in 
rare instances is one of this class to be reproved. 

But the middle group, composing the vast concourse 
of children, is highly susceptible to good and bad influ- 



ONLY A BOY. 179 

ences. These are the children standing "on slippery 
places." Environments make or unmake them. If 
started in the right direction, and carefully watched till 
habits are formed and fixed, they will move onward 
through life as honorable and useful members of society. 
When passion is strong, the will-power weak, reason 
only partially developed, and the habits in process of 
formation, then it is that the child needs the steady 
hand of the teacher to lead him along the dangerous 
pathway. 

Through affection for the teacher the wayward boy 
becomes obedient, and most cheerfully submits to those 
rules and regulations of school which are established for 
his well-being. Without this spirit of love he submits 
only from sheer necessity. 

The incorrigible or untamed child is hard to control ; 
but even the most vicious always have some good traits. 
These traits should be found out and then developed. 
The human face is always a true index of the character. 
Profoundly versed in faces, and knowing how to turn 
everything to the best account, the teacher is skillful 
only in proportion as he can change the natural tenden- 
cies from viciousness to uprightness. Education does 
not change the character ; it changes the direction — the 
life. It causes the individual to change his powers from 
one mode of thinking, feeling, and acting to another. 
The motives are different. Placing before the pupil a 
better set of motives, and letting these impel him to 
action in a newer and higher direction, is the chief value 
of a right education. 

To pluck out or displace a bad motive, and to put a 
better one in its place, is the highest duty a teacher is 



180 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

ever called upon to perform. Hunt, therefore, for the 
good qualities in the child's nature. Develop these, 
and the worst case of "petted and spoiled" may be 
cured. 

FIDGETY BOY. 

No description of this irritation of the school-room 
is needed. He is too well known. 

The first step is to ascertain the cause of this state 
of uncontrollableness. It may depend originally upon 
two conditions of the body, namely, an inherited nerv- 
ousness, or from a large preponderance of life and ani- 
mal spirits in the system, such as usually accompany a 
full development of the sanguine- vital temperaments; 
or it may not be dependent upon either of these, but 
merely capricious willfulness. In any event, probe the 
case to the bottom, and then base your action upon the 
result of your examination. 

I will briefly indicate the remedies for these three 
distinct types of " fidgets." 

1. Keep cool, and never become flurried or excited. 
Speak quietly, gently, in the school-room. Thus you 
insensibly tone down the highly wrought nervous chil- 
dren under your tuition. Your influence should soothe, 
not irritate, the delicate children who are so susceptible 
that every sound strikes a thousand tense nerves in their 
bodies. 

Here, also, is an excellent opportunity for the teacher 
to study himself, and to note particularly what effect he 
produces upon the minds of his pupils. 

2. A pupil having a large supply of blood in his 
body needs pure air and out-door exercise. Confined 
in a school-room, he longs to get out and to get away. 



ONLY A BOY. 181 

Nature indicates that he should rim around. Let him do 
something for you. Send him on errands. Such exercise 
will purify his blood, and will keep him out of mischief. 
Such pupils need work-shops as well as study-rooms. 
3. The last case is managed easily. DonH permit it ! 

THE SULLEN BOY. 

The infant is born into the world with capabilities 
that may be developed. Everything he will ever know 
must be learned. His tendencies, or the " bent of his 
mind," are to be guided and directed. Early in life the 
child is not supposed to know in all cases what is best 
for him to do or not to do. Experience teaches lessons 
after many failures. Proper education is just as need- 
ful for the mind as food, air, clothing, and exercise are 
for the body. To educate is, in one sense, to put the 
mind in that condition so that it may gather knowledge, 
arrange it, classify it, and have it ready for use ; and the 
effort put forth in getting knowledge gives additional 
power and skill to overcome other difficulties. 

The sullen or stubborn boy is sometimes met with 
in the school-room. 

Symptoms. — For some reason the pupil takes it 
into his head that he will not do anything the teacher 
requests him to do. When spoken to, he replies fre- 
quently by rolling his eyes in an indifferent sort of a 
way about the school-room. When requested to move, 
he sits still in dogged silence. If threatened, he is 
equally indifferent. Threats and coaxing have precisely 
the same effect — sublime and haughty contempt ! It is 
no more nor less than his will-power acting through 
stubbornness in opposition to the teacher's will. 



182 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

Remedial Agents. — There are some old-fashioned 
teachers who claim that a keen, tough switch possesses 
excellent virtues in the hands of an able-bodied teacher 
on such occasions. In a very few cases it may do good, 
but let the switch be used very sparingly. 

An Anecdote. — On one occasion a miss of fifteen 
flatly refused to recite her lesson or answer any question 
which her teacher asked her. 

She was excused and took her seat. At the next 
recitation she sat quietly, the teacher paying no atten- 
tion to her whatever. Thus the day wore away. Next 
morning she came to school in due time, meanwhile 
chatting lively with her classmates. School was called. 
At the proper time she took her place with her class, 
ready for recitation. The teacher kindly and pleasantly 
informed her that, till she could act in a becoming man- 
ner, she would not recite to him, and, since she had 
voluntarily chosen to deprive herself of the privileges of 
school, the proper place for her would be at home ; she 
was therefore excused. But he added that, if at any 
time she concluded to comply with the rules and regu- 
lations of the school, she might return. Three hours 
later she came back. The teacher had conquered. 

Time I regard as the essential element in outgener- 
aling the " sullen boy." When the question of suprem- 
acy of will-power is once decided, the question is settled. 

THE FIGHTING AND SWEARING BOY. 

Nearly all boys will fight and swear. There are few 
exceptions. Of course, a boy may fight in self-defense, 
or to protect another person ; or, under intense excite- 
ment, he may use language more emphatic than refined : 



ONLY A BOY. 183 

it is not my purpose to discuss rare and exceptional 
cases. 

The right to protect one's self in his person, reputa- 
tion, and property, is recognized as an instinct of our 
nature, and all persons act upon this right, with the 
exception of those who advocate the .non-resistance 
doctrine. 

But the " fighting and swearing boy " is an intol- 
erable nuisance in the school. As a disturber of the 
peace he has few equals and no superiors. He takes 
special delight in creating disturbances, and in getting 
others into fights and broils, and then in glorying in 
their discomfiture. One noisy, fighting, swearing boy 
will contaminate an entire school, and nullify the teach- 
er's efforts, unless some plan is adopted whereby his 
course of conduct is turned into better channels. 

Whenever the teacher finds such a case in school, 
there should be no waste of time in setting about a 
method of correcting him. If his instincts are low and 
brutal, and through force of habit at home he has ac- 
quired a quarrelsome and fighting disposition, there is 
no higher element in his nature to appeal to than that 
of overcoming physical force with physical force. It is 
the same principle that enables Conklin to tame and 
subdue the lion. A combination of mind and muscle 
exercising sway over a lower order of mind may be the 
means of elevating the latter ; yet the motives are cer- 
tainly not those of the nobler kind. 

Frequently it happens that the " fighting boy " has 
a high sense of honor, and, having established his repu- 
tation as a pugilist, he is exceedingly desirous of main- 
taining the title, at no little personal sacrifice. If the 



184: PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

boy be of such a character, an appeal to his manhood is 
perhaps the most effectual way of reaching him, and 
thereby reforming his habits. "Wrong notions of true 
bravery have done much to foster fighting, and to give 
it an air of respectability in many sections of our 
country. 

The toleration of prize-fighting and pugilistic exhibi- 
tions generally, and the greediness with which accounts 
of such matters are devoured by no small portion of the 
public, help to foster the fighting spirit among school- 
boys. Doubtless the statement is measurably true that 
even the most highly enlightened and civilized com- 
munities still retain many traces of barbarism. The 
English, Irish, and a very large portion of the Ameri- 
cans, have combativeness and destructiveness largely 
developed, and they are too frequently impelled to work 
off this superfluous energy through their fists and feet. 

By his influence, inculcating higher notions of life 
and the dignity of true manhood, and the brutal and 
disgraceful features connected with fighting, the teacher 
can do much toward creating a public sentiment in a 
community against fighting. 

" That man only is truly brave who fears nothing 
so much as doing a shameful action, and that dares 
resolutely and undauntedly go where his duty, how 
dangerous soever it is, may call him." 

By reference to noble deeds and virtuous actions, 
placing higher incentives before the minds of children, 
they may be taught to emulate the true, the good, and 
the honorable of earth. Hence, by strong, earnest, hon- 
est, continuous effort, the teacher may change, in almost 
every instance, " the fighting and swearing hoy " into 



ONLY A BOY. 185 

a quiet, orderly, and industrious pupil. Precept, prac- 
tice, correct judgment properly applied, will effect more 
toward turning the baser metal into gold than the 
brightest visions of the alchemist's dreams, 

THE LAZY BOY. 

There is a prevailing opinion that no little child is 
lazy, and, as an evidence of this fact, the activity and 
sportiveness of all young animals are referred to as con- 
firmatory of this belief. While it is admitted, and with 
a considerable degree of plausibility likewise, that 
healthy young animals really enjoy themselves in vari- 
ous ways, yet I am not fully convinced, from all the 
evidence now before me, that the analogy between ani- 
mals and children will bear close and impartial investi- 
gation. Be that matter as it may, if all young children 
are not lazy, a considerable number " are born into the 
world with an astonishing amount of tiredness fastened 
upon them." 

Laziness is a disinclination to work, either with the 
mind or body, and some cases of it — whether hereditary 
or acquired, it matters not — are actually found in school. 
Upon physiological conditions, it is readily understood 
how and why a rapidly growing child may be lazy. 
Perhaps it requires all the vitality which he possesses 
to satisfy the physical demands of his system. Lazi- 
ness, unless it be a newly manufactured article, depends 
largely upon temperamental conditions. These condi- 
tions can, through a series of years, be modified, but not 
entirely obliterated. An inquiry should be made here 
as to whether the laziness is primary or secondary : 
primary when it is inbred and inborn, and secondary 
IT 



186 PRINCIPLES OP EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

when it accompanies rapidly growing childhood. The 
second phase passes away usually in the course of a few 
years. The teacher can do little with laziness unless he 
goes at once to the roots of the disease. To tell a child 
that he is lazy oftentimes does more harm than good. 

1. Occasionally the school-room feature of the case 
is relieved by inducing the child " to go to bed early 
and to sleep nine or ten hours out of the twenty-four." 

2. A pupil may appear dull, stupid, and lazy, when 
in reality he is slow to apprehend new things, or it is 
with difficulty that he can turn from one subject to 
another. In this instance he is usually classed as a 
" lazy, slow boy." 

3. Plenty of exercise in the open air is a wonderful 
invigorator. 

4. Light, easily digested, nutritious food aids mental 
activity. 

5. Laziness, or dullness, or fatness, can not be 
whipped out of a child any more than learning can be 
whipped into him. 

THE LYING BOY. 

All persons having a high regard for truthfulness 
agree that it is better to speak the truth, though the 
penalty of death be incurred, than to prevaricate. The 
conflicting motives are present and future happiness. 

Lying is so detestable that ancients and moderns are 
unanimous in condemning it. 

" Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes m 
the world." — Epictetus. 

" A lie has no legs, and can not stand ; but it has 
wings, and can fly far and wide." — Warburton. 



ONLY A BOY. 187 

* Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which 
fits them all." — Holmes. 

" Every brave man shuns more than death the shame 
of lying."— Comeille. 

" None but cowards lie." — Murphy. 

" When first found in a lie, talk to him of it as a 
strange, monstrous matter, and so shame him out of it." 
— Locke. 

The educator deals with human nature just as he 
finds it in every-day life. While he may create lofty 
ideals, and strive to reach them himself and to induce 
his pupils to go as far or farther, yet it is mostly with 
commonplace persons that his life is spent. 

In a school, as in a community, a public sentiment 
can be created, and that sentiment shapes, in a very 
considerable degree, popular opinion. 

In a community known for fair dealing in business 
transactions, and whose people are truthful, and their 
words fitly chosen and properly spoken, a liar stands a 
poor chance, because he is readily known in his true 
character as a dishonest man. Not unfrequently a liar 
has found himself so out of place among honest and 
veracious people that he has been known " to turn over 
a new leaf and commence telling the truth," and in due 
time to establish a fair reputation as a good citizen. 
This may be ascribed mostly to the moral standard of 
the community in which the prevaricator lived. 

What is true of a community or neighborhood is 
likewise true of a school. In effecting a general refor- 
mation, the teacher is advised first to create a moral 
sentiment, and, in an effective way, bring the public 
opinion of the school up to that standard. 



188 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

It is a well-known fact that children generally pre- 
fer to have the good-will of their schoolmates rather 
than their ill-will. Thus the many are united as a hand 
to uphold the unsteady one* One little kernel of confi- 
dence planted in a boy's soul oftentimes works wonders 
in his whole life. To know that he is trusted, and that 
there are those who grieve and are sad at thought of his 
bad actions, has been the means of lifting many a pupil 
to a higher and purer life. 

Here, again, the teacher's daily life, as he lives it, is 
the most potent factor. It was the respect that the 
" boys of Hugby " had for the open, manly character 
of Dr. Arnold that kept them from lying to him. I 
believe that nearly all children may be influenced simi- 
larly. 

ILLUSTRATION. 

Twenty-five years ago there lived in a "Western town 
a boy ten years old. His father worked but little, and 
the mother " took in washing " to get food for her chil- 
dren. The boy — the eldest child — was called a " thief 
and a liar" by everybody. Good people would not let 
their children play with this " vagabond," as he was fre- 
quently called. 

A stranger was induced bj a few prominent citizens 
to open a select school in this town, but he was cau- 
tioned by several responsible persons not to admit this 
notorious boy to school: First, h© would spoil better 
children ; and, secondly, his parents were unable to pay 
his tuition. Strange as it may appear, the stranger de- 
cided that, if this boy should come to school, he would 
admit him, for a while at least. 

The first week of school came and went, and the 



ONLY A BOY. 189 

<s notorious boy " was still running the streets ; but the 
second Monday morning there he was, sure enough, 
ragged, dirty, bright, and noisy — a regular " Ishmaelite," 
so to speak, among the other boys. School being called, 
he came in and took a front seat. Presently the teacher 
went to him and asked him very quietly and very 
pleasantly " if he wanted to come to school." " You 
bet," was the emphatic reply. The boy, apparently, re- 
ceived little attention that day, yet the teacher had 
taken a pretty correct measure of him before school 
closed in the afternoon. Enough to say that on "Wed- 
nesday this boy was sent on an errand to purchase " chalk 
for the blackboard," a little service that he performed 
faithfully, and, by Friday night, he was behaving him- 
self as well as any other pupil in school. 

Next Monday morning he was at school early, and 
helped the teacher make the fire in the stove. It was 
then and there that that boy made the following manly 
confession : 

" Teacher," he said, " everybody says that I he and 
steal, and that I am a mean boy ; nobody trusts me but 
you. I want to be good, and won't you like me if I am 
a good boy ? " With tears glistening in his eyes, the 
teacher took the child by the hand, and then said " Yes." 

Years passed by. This boy learned a good trade, 
became an industrious citizen, and, at last accounts, was 
the possessor of a pleasant home, surrounded by an in- 
teresting family. 

The reader must not infer that all similar cases can 
be cured in this way, but I am firmly of the opinion 
that a very large percentage of cases may be reformed 
under proper and judicious treatment. 



190 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PEACTICALLY APPLIED. 

The old adage, " Give a dog a bad name and hang 
him," is just as true of people. When self-respect is 
lost, all is lost, and there is nothing left to build on, or 
to build to. 

One of the worst phases of lying is that in which 
one pupil tells a deliberate falsehood in regard to an- 
other pupil. When an offense of this character is com- 
mitted, the offender should suffer for it ; and also when 
a pupil lies and willfully persists in the lie afterward. 
In such cases it is best to inform the parent or guardian 
of the child's conduct. This delicate duty frequently 
requires the rarest tact upon the part of the teacher to 
avoid giving offense to the parent. 

The precise nature of the punishment to be inflicted 
must be determined mainly from the circumstances con- 
nected with each case as it arises. 

OTHER BOYS. 

There are yet other peculiar boys that deserve a 
passing notice. 

Who has not seen the " sharp, sly, foxy boy " ? An 
innocent look, yet beneath it all so many signs that told 
the story of his character. And " the noisy boy," too ! 
~Not mischievous, only noisy ! He, too, is to be tamed 
down. A quiet, dignified teacher can calm him easily. 

The real " saucy boy," who delights in worrying the 
teacher, and whose memory is exceedingly treacherous, 
is generally more than a match for a peevish, fretful 
teacher. He is continually "forgetting," "speaking 
without permission," or in some way or other troubling 
the teacher. What he should not say, he says, and he 
seldom does the right thing at the right time. 



ONLY A BOY. 191 

As such eases are not hard to manage if the teacher 
keeps her temper, we dismiss them to introduce the 
" scary boy " ! 

Some children are excessively timid ; so timid, in- 
deed, that, if the teacher only look at them, they cry. 
I was met on the street recently by a man who said 
" that his little boy had been in school two weeks, and 
yet the teacher would not let him recite a lesson." 
"Strange," I replied, "but there is a mistake some- 
where. Let us hunt it up." He did not have time, 
but I went at once to the room. 

The child was there. He had not recited a lesson. 
If the teacher but looked at him, he cried aloud; if 
she stepped in the direction of his seat, he would scream 
with all his might. What could the teacher do % She 
was a lady of the kindest disposition ; her children loved 
her, and by all of them she was called their " school- 
mother." But this particular little fellow was " scary "; 
it appeared to be born in him, and he could not help 
it. Upon my advice he was taken away from school. 

Usually, timid children soon get over their sensi- 
tiveness, especially if the teacher treats them with kind- 
ness and makes them feel that they have nothing to 
fear. 

In dealing with " hard or exceptional cases," there 
are two ideas the teacher must ever keep in view : 1. 
The good of the individual pupil. 2. The welfare of the 
school. The welfare of the many must not be sacrificed 
for the few or the one. Back of sympathy — back of all 
devices — is the question of obedience. To this, as the 
highest tribunal, all cases of disobedience, if they will 
not yield to milder remedies, must be brought. 



192 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION PRACTICALLY APPLIED. 

The good teacher always keeps Ms reserve power 
well in hand, and those who will not submit must suffer 
the consequences of their own folly. One of the most 
lasting lessons a system of education can inculcate is, 
that transgression brings its own punishment. 

The teacher, standing as it were at the threshold 
of the child's life, sees two paths widely divergent, and 
along which the child must choose one or the other and 
travel. One leads out into the street — to vicious habits, 
lying, theft, drunkenness, disgrace, poverty, and wretch- 
edness; a life without an aim, without a purpose; a 
wretched failure ! The other conducts to success in busi- 
ness, secures the confidence and approbation of mankind, 
elevates the race, dignifies humanity, and brings its pos- 
sessor happiness and contentment in old age. 

"With such conceptions of life the true teacher works 
to realize his highest ideals, and, as his race is run and 
he falls at last, he points out the path to a more glorious 
reward for the " wayward boys." 

Only a Boy. 

1. A very peculiar boy. 5. The fighting and swearing boy. 

2. The petted and spoiled boy. 6. The lazy boy. 

3. The fidgety boy. 7. The lying boy. 

4. The sullen boy. 8. Other boys. 



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ERRORS IN THE USE OF ENGLISH. By the late William 

B. Hodgson, LL. D., Professor of Political Economy in the University 

of Edinburgh. American revised edition. 12mo, cloth, $1.50. 

" This posthumous work of Dr. Hodgson deserves a hearty welcome, for it is 
sure to do good service for the object it has in view— improved accuracy in the 
use of the English language. . . . Perhaps its chief use will be in very distinctly 
proving with what wonderful carelessness or incompetency the English language 
is generally written. For the examples of error here brought together are not 
picked from obscure or inferior writings. Among the grammatical sinners whose 
trespasses are here recorded appear many of our best-known authors and publi- 
cations."— TAe Academy. 

THE ENGLISH GRAMMAR OF WILLIAM COBBETT, 
Carefully revised and annotated by Alfred Ayres. With Index. 
18mo, cloth, extra, $1.00. 

" I know it well, and have read it with great admiration."— Richard Grant 
White. 

" Cobbett's Grammar is probably the most readable grammar ever written. 
For the purposes of self-education it is unrivaled. Persons that studied grammar 
when at school and failed to comprehend its principles— and there are many such 
—as well as those that never have studied grammar at all, will find the book 
specially suited to their needs. Any one of average intelligence that will give it 
a careful reading will be rewarded with at least a tolerable knowledge of the 
subject, as nothing could be more simple or more lucid than its expositions."— 
From the Preface. 

THE ORTHOEPIST : A Pronouncing Manual, containing about 

Three Thousand Five Hundred Words, including a Considerable 

Number of the Names of Foreign Authors, Artists, etc.. that are 

often mispronounced. By Alfred Ayres. 18mo, cloth, extra, $1.00. 

" It gives us pleasure to say that we think the author, in the treatment of this 
very difficult and intricate subject, English pronunciation, gives proof of not only 
au unusual degree of orthoepical knowledge, but also, for the most part, of rare 
judgment and taste."— Joseph Thomas, LL. D., in Literary World. 

THE VERBALIST : A Manual devoted to Brief Discussions of the 
Right and the Wrong Use of Words, and to some other matters of 
Interest to those who would Speak and Write with Propriety, includ- 
ing a Treatise on Punctuation. By Alfred Ayres. 18mo, cloth, 
extra, $1.00. 

" This is the best kind of an English grammar. It teaches the right use of 
our mother-tongue by giving instances of the wrong use of it, and showing why 
they are wrong." — The Churchman. 

" Every one can learn something from this volume, and most of us a great 
deal. 1 *— Springfield Republican. 



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BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. 



THE WINNERS IN LIFE'S RACE; or, The Great Backboned 
Family. By Arabella B. Buckley. With numerous Illustrations. 12mo. 
Cloth, gilt, $1.50. 

CONTENTS.— I. The Threshold of Backboned Life ; II. How the Quaint Old 
Fishes of Ancient Times have Lived on into our Day; III. The Bony Fish, and how 
they have spread over Sea, and Lake, and Kiver; IV. How the Backboned Animals 
pass from Water Breathing to Air Breathing, and find their Way out upon the Land ; 
v . The Cold-Blooded Air-Breathers of the Globe in Times both Past and Present ; 
VI. The Feathered Conquerors of the Air. — Part I. Their Wanderings over Sea and 
Marsh, Desert and Plain ; VII. The Feathered Conquerors of the Air. — Part II. From 
Running to Flying, from Mound-Laying to Nest-Building, from Cry to Song ; VIII. 
The Mammalia or Milk-Givers, the Simplest Sucking Mother, the Active Pouch-Bearers, 
and the Imperfect-Toothed Animals; IX. From the Lower and Small Milk-Givers 
which find Safety in Concealment, to the Intelligent Apes and Monkeys ; X. The Large 
Milk-Givers who have Conquered the World by Strength and Intelligence ; XL How 
the Backboned Animals have Returned to the Water, and Large Milk-Givers Imitate 
the Fish ; XII. A Bird's-Eye View of the Eise and Progress of Backboned Life. 

" Although the present volume, as giving an account of the vertebrate animals, is a 
natural sequel to, and a completion of, my former book, ' Life and her Children, 1 which 
treated of invertebrates, yet it is a more independent work, both in plan and execution, 
than I had at first contemplated. ... I have endeavored to describe graphically the 
early history of the backboned animals, so far as it is yet known to us, keeping strictly 
to such broad facts as ought in these days to be familiar to every child and ordinarily 
well-educated person ; if they are to have any true conception of Natural History. At 
the same time I have dwelt as fully as space would allow upon the fives of such modern 
animals as best illustrate the present divisions of the vertebrates upon the earth ; my 
object being rather to follow the tide of life, and sketch in broad outline how structure 
and habit have gone hand in hand in filling every available space with living beings, 
than to multiply descriptions of the various species. 1 '— From the Preface. 

"An account of vertebrate animals, written with such natural spirit and vivacity, 
that it might convert even a literary person to natural science. 11 — Saturday Review. 

" We can conceive no better gift-book than this volume. Miss Buckley has spared 
no pains to incorporate in her book the latest results of scientific research. The illus- 
trations in the book deserve the highest praise ; they are numerous, accurate, and 
striking. 11 — London Spectator. 

" It is full of instructive illustrations." — New York World. 

JLIFE AND HER CHILDREN. Glimpses of Animal Life from the Amceba 
to the Insects. By Arabella B. Buckley. With upward of One Hundred 
Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
CONTENTS.— 1. Life and her Children ; II. Life's Simplest Children ; how they 
Live, and Move, and Build; III. How Sponges Live; IV. The Lasso-Throwers of the 
Ponds and Oceans; V. How Starfish Walk and Sea-Urchins Grow ; VI. The Mantle- 
Covered Animals, and how they Live with Heads and without them ; VII. The Out- 
casts of Animal Life, and the Elastic-ringed Animals by Sea and by Land; VIII. The 
Mailed Warriors of the Sea, with Kinged Bodies and Jointed Feet ; IX. The Snare- 
Weavers and their Hunting Relations ; X. Insect Suckers and Biters, which Change 
their Coats, but not their Bodies ; XI. Insect Gnawers and Sippers, which Remodel 
their Bodies within their Coats ; XII. intelligent Insects with Helpless Children, as 
illustrated by the Ants. 

" The main object is to acquaint young people with the structure and habits of the 
lower forms of life ; and to do this in a more systematic way than is usual in ordinary 
works on natural history, and more simply than in text-books on zoology. For this 
reason I have adopted the title, ' Life and her Children,' to express the family bond 
uniting all living things, as we use the term ' Nature and her Works ' to embrace alJ 
organic and inorganic phenomena; and I have been more careful to sketch in bold 
outline the leading features of each division than to dwell on the minor differences by 
which it is separated into groups. 1 '— From the, Preface. 

fsEE NEXT PAGE.l 






BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. 



THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. By Arabella B. Buckley. With 
numerous Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

"A child's reading-book, most charmingly illustrated, and in every way rendered 
especially interesting to the juvenile reader.' 1 — Athenaeum. 

" So interesting that, having once opened it, we do not know how to leave off read- 
ing."— Saturday Review. 

" Her methods of presenting certain facts and phenomena difficult to grasp are 
most original and striking, and admirably calculated to enable tbe reader to realize the 
truth. As to the interest of her story, we have tested it in a youthful subject, and sho 
mentioned it in the same breath with ' Grimm's Fairy Tales. 1 . . . The book abounds 
with beautifully engraved and thoroughly appropriate illustrations, and altogether is 
one of the most successful attempts we know of to combine the dulce with the utile. 
We are sure any of the older children would welcome it as a present ; but it deserves 
to take a permanent place in the literature of youth." — London Times. 

" A child's reading-book admirably adapted to the purpose intended. The young 
reader is referred to nature itself rather than to books, and is taught to observe and 
investigate, and not to -rest satisfied with a collection of dull definitions learned by rote 
and worthless to the possessor. The present work will be found a valuable and inter- 
esting addition to the somewhat overcrowded child's library." — Boston Gazette. 

"Written in a style so simple and lucid as to be within the comprehension of an 
intelligent child, and yet it will be found entertaining to maturer minds." — Baltimore 
Gazette. 

" The ease of her style, the charm of her illustrations, and the clearness with which 
she explains what is abstruse, are no doubt the result of much labor ; but there is 
nothing labored in her pages, and the reader must be dull indeed who takes up this 
volume without finding much to attract attention and to stimulate inquiry."— Pall 
Mall Gazette. 

SHORT HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCE AND THE PROG- 
RESS OF DISCOVERY, from the Time of the Greeks to the 
Present Day. For Schools and Young Persons. By Aeabella B. Buckley. 
With Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $2.00. 

" The volume is attractive as a book of anecdotes of men of science and their dis- 
coveries. Its remarkable features are the sound judgment with which the true land- 
marks of scientific historv are selected, the conciseness of the information conveyed, 
and the interest with which the whole subject is nevertheless invested. Its style is 
strictly adapted to its avowed purpose of furnishing a text-book for the use of schools 
and young persons." — London Daily News. 

'-' A most admirable little volume. It is a classified resume of the chief discoveries 
in physical science. To the young student it is a book to open up new worlds with 
every chapter." — London Graphic. 

" The book will be a valuable aid in the study of the elements of natural science."— 
Journal of Education. 

" Miss Buckley supplies in the present volume a gap in our educational literature. 
Guides to literature abound ; guides to science, similar in purpose and character to 
Miss Buckley^ History, are unknown. The writers plan, therefore, is original, and 
her execution of the plan is altogether admirable. She has had a long training in 
science, and there are signs on every page of this volume of the careful and conscien- 
tious manner in which she has performed her task." — Pall Mall Gazette. 



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